Pope inadvertently quotes Putin on Afghan war

AP/MADRID: Pope Francis has criticised the West's recent involvement in Afghanistan as an outsider's attempt to impose democracy -- although he did it by citing Russia's Vladimir Putin while thinking he was quoting Germany's Angela Merkel. Asked during a radio interview aired on Wednesday about the new political map taking shape in Afghanistan after the United States and its allies withdrew from the Talibancontrolled country after 20 years of war, the Pope said he would answer with a quote that he attributed to the German chancellor, whom he described as “one of the world's greatest political figures”.

“It's necessary to stop the irresponsible policy of enforcing its own values on others and attempts to build democracy in other countries based on outside models without taking into account historic, ethnic and religious issues and fully ignoring other people's traditions,” the Pope said, using his own translation into Spanish. But the words were spoken by the Russian President in the presence of Merkel during her visit to Moscow. During the meeting on August 20, Putin scathingly criticised the West over Afghanistan, saying that the Taliban's rapid sweep over the country has shown the futility of Western attempts to enforce its own vision of democracy.

The Pope's interview with Spain's Cadena COPE took place at the Vatican late last week. The radio station owned by Spain's Catholic bishops' conference aired the talk on Wednesday and said its

content had been vetted by the Pope himself.