Depending whether you read the New York Times or the Washington Post, Afghan President Hamid Karzai is either saying that the US government is actively colluding with Taliban to destabilize Afghanistan, or their actions are just happening in parallel. The charge that the US would be working to destabilize the country is bad enough, of course.

The NYTimes’ careful wording:

Among Mr. Karzai’s critical comments on Sunday, which came at an early morning news conference in honor of Women’s Day, he charged that the American government and the Taliban, while using different means, had in effect colluded to keep Afghanistan unstable in order to justify a continued American military presence.

The WaPo’s version:

Afghan President Hamid Karzai lashed out at the United States in strikingly acerbic terms Sunday, implying that the American military was stoking violence in collusion with the Taliban to justify a prolonged presence here and charging that foreign troops were harassing Afghan university students.