Afghan president would welcome more U.S. troops

The president of Afghanistan on Tuesday signaled he would welcome additional U.S. combat troops to his increasingly fragile state.

The debate over whether the White House should ask Congress to send more military personnel to Afghanistan has been tense since Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the mission's commander, predicted failure unless he received additional help. As the Obama administration debates his request, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said he is "fully behind [McChrystal] for what he's seeking in his report," adding that he would welcome a heightened U.S. military commitment to his state.

"I'm not a military expert," Karzai told ABC in an interview aired Tuesday morning. "This is an official matter that officials have to talk and come out with the result to us. What I'm concerned about is the protection of the Afghan people. What I'm concerned about is a successful implementation of our struggle against extremism and terrorism."

The president is still meeting with defense advisers and congressional lawmakers to determine how to best offer that support, and the White House has heretofore declined to indicate when Obama would announce his decision.

What administration officials have said repeatedly, however, is that they are unlikely to commit additional troops until Afghanistan solves its election debacle -- a series of fraud allegations that could implicate Karzai, who was pronounced the winner
even though about 20 percent of all ballots cast were deemed suspicious.

But the embattled Afghan president on Tuesday dismissed allegations that "widespread" fraud tainted the outcome of this year's race. He called some of those charges "totally fabricated," and he assured that his state was cooperating with an international investigation.

"There were irregularities. There must've also been fraud committed, no doubt. But the election was good and fair and worthy of praise, not of scorn, which the election received from the international media," Karzai said. "That makes me very unhappy. That rather makes me angry."