Massoud Hossaini/AFP-Getty Images
Survivor: Karzai evades death one more time

By Jeffrey Stern

The first mortar round fell during a 21-gun salute, so that the thunder of the real cannonade was camouflaged by that of the staged.  When the parliamentarians struck by gunfire slumped back, those standing near appeared casually confused rather than frightened, as if a fellow dignitary had merely succumbed to a fainting spell, and had unbalanced a few others on his way down.  Then, visible on national television, was the accelerating reaction of people who recognize the presence of danger but not its exact location.  Troops in fatigues ran into those wearing ceremonial dress while men belly-flopped to check the undercarriages of SUVs for charges, pulled flak jackets out and threw them at those who didn’t already have them. Soldiers fled, and the president’s men took up firing positions while the president himself ducked into an SUV and was driven to safety. 

This was the scene in Kabul on Sunday, when Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai narrowly escaped yet another assassination attempt—the fourth since he took office. Three people, including a child and a parliamentarian from Paktia province where, ironically, the Taliban is far more active than here in Kabul, died in the attack.