However, in later years the relations between U.S. and Karzai had become strained, particularly Karzai had been very critical of U.S. military because of their high-level of civilian casualties. In 2019 he described a "major fight" he had with American military officials back in 2007, when Karzai repeatedly told them: "If you want to fight terrorism and bad people, I won’t stop you, but please leave the Afghan people alone". In a retrospective interview, Karzai claimed he felt that he was being used as a tool by the United States.