Hamid Karzai

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta travels to Brussels this week to meet with NATO ministers. The U.S. is desperate to get NATO countries to pony up more money for Afghanistan, to keep the security effort from collapsing once NATO pulls out and Afghan forces take over.

A U.S. Army staff sergeant's alleged massacre of Afghan civilians has raised calls for the U.S. to leave Afghanistan before the end-of-2014 timetable set by President Obama. Even some Republican presidential candidates are saying it is time to end the war. But not Mitt Romney.

It's been a difficult week for U.S. and Afghan relations, with the Afghan president demanding U.S. troops be confined to bases within a year following an alleged shooting spree by a U.S. serviceman that left 16 Afghan civilians dead. The flared tensions could force the Obama administration to rethink its plans for withdrawal.

The Afghan leader also refers to the information from American military officials that only one soldier, an unidentified Army staff sergeant, was involved as a "supposed" account of what happened.

The Taliban has announced it is suspending peace talks with the U.S. At the same time, Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanded the U.S. pull troops out of rural areas by next year following a deadly shooting spree by an American soldier. These signals have come at an already difficult time for the U.S. in Afghanistan and further complicate the U.S. exit strategy.

Two U.S. troops were shot dead by an Afghan soldier in a day of riots and protests across the country over Qurans that were burned. U.S. forces and Afghan authorities are braced for more trouble following Friday prayers at mosques nationwide.

There have been protests in various parts of Afghanistan since word broke that some Islamic religious materials, including Qurans, were inadvertently burned by international military personnel at the Bagram Air Field north of Kabul.

The official reason for the visit is a counterterrorism conference, but they leader arrived at a time of heightened international tensions.

The surprise announcement that the U.S. and the Taliban could soon begin peace talks in Qatar may have increased the chances of a negotiated settlement in Afghanistan. But some Afghans wonder whether such talks are about stabilizing Afghanistan — or just helping U.S. troops leave.