No longer interim

摘要

It was testimony to the strides that Af-ghanistan has made since America vanquished the Taliban three years ago. On December 7th, Hamid Karzai was inaugurated as president, a job he has been doing on an interim basis since shortly after the war ended, and one to which he was overwhelmingly elected in October. The ceremony, at the former royal palace, was attended by no lesser personages than America's vice-president, Dick Cheney, and defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld. Both were no doubt delighted to be able to celebrate a success in the war against terror. All the same, neither thought it wise to stay the night. The old regime and the al-Qaeda terrorists it harboured might be down, but they are still capable of killing.