Kabul
Afghanistan’s first democratically elected president, Hamid Karzai, kissed the Koran and took the oath of office this week amid heavy security. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were among the 150 guests at the inauguration, but ordinary Afghans were advised to stay home because of the possibility of Taliban attacks. “Our fight against terrorism is not yet over,” Karzai said. But he encouraged Afghans to look to the future, saying, “We have now left a hard and dark past behind us, and today we are opening a new chapter in our history, in a spirit of friendship with the international community.”
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