Karzai rules out Iraq scenario in Afghanistan --- Both Iraq and Afghanistan were the target of major US-led wars, both are besieged by strong insurgencies, and both are still struggling to establish solid institutions. -- In Kabul this week, Afghans kept bringing up the dramatic developments unfolding in Iraq, where radical Islamist fighters stunned many with their lightning sweep into key cities. -- "Its a lesson to us," warned one Afghan MP. -- "Did you see how they are slaughtering Shias?" lamented a Afghan friend who is from the same sect. -- So, when we went to the heavily fortified palace to interview President Hamid Karzai about his last 12 years in power, the questions about the years to come loom even larger. -- Could what's happening in Iraq happen in Afghanistan? -- "Never. Not at all," is the Afghan leader's emphatic reply. -- Could there be sectarian strife? -- "Not at all. Not all all. We are a united country." -- What makes him so confident? -- "The Afghan people," he replies, without hesitation. --- And President Karzai dismisses any possible repeat of the dramatic collapse of Iraqi security forces in the face of an onslaught by fighters of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). -- He hails the performance of Afghan security forces in this year's presidential elections, despite significant Taliban threats and attacks. -- But this is still a country which, despite billions of dollars in aid and years of Western training of its security forces, is still plagued by horrific violence by Taliban and other armed groups. -- Last December, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari flew into Kabul and offered some fraternal advice to the Afghan president: resolve your differences with Washington and sign the security pact (known as the Bilateral Security Agreement), which would provide for a long-term US military presence in your country. -- "I thanked him for his advice," President Karzai tells me. "But I have my views, and my information, from working in Afghanistan for more than 12 years." -- More, BBC, Lyse Doucet, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27914425