Word: karzai
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...currently deployed there. Those troops will be used to strengthen the approaches to some of the country's major cities and to go toe-to-toe with insurgents in the south and east in order to demonstrate that a Taliban victory is far from inevitable. Karzai has been cool to any addition of foreign troops and has urged that if they do come, they should be deployed along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. But Karzai's preferences are unlikely to decide the issue: the New York Times reports that "the Obama Administration would work with provincial leaders as an alternative...
President Hamid Karzai may have been installed and may be maintained in power by the U.S. and its NATO allies, but the relationship between them continues to sour - and that could have significant consequences for the Obama Administration's plans to win the war in Afghanistan. Thursday's announcement postponing Afghanistan's presidential election from April to August means that Karzai will remain in office as a new U.S. plan for Afghanistan goes into effect, even though U.S. and NATO commanders have long warned that the rampant corruption and inefficiency of the Karzai government are undermining the war effort. NATO...
...Despite Western disillusionment with Karzai, there's no sign thus far that Washington believes Afghanistan's fledgling democracy might produce a more capable successor. But pressure on Karzai from Washington - and even the planned "surge" of three new U.S. combat brigades into Afghanistan starting this summer - may set the U.S. on a collision course with its client in Kabul. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned during congressional testimony this week that the U.S. would have to narrow its objectives, abandoning any ideas of turning Afghanistan into "a Central Asian Valhalla." The immediate priority of the Administration's new war plan...
...Karzai, for his part, appears inclined to align himself with growing numbers of Afghans who are hostile to the Western military presence in his country by, if not quite biting, then at least snapping at the hand that feeds and protects him. He opened parliament on Jan. 23 with a speech that included a blistering attack on the conduct of the U.S.-led war, complaining that Washington and its allies are undermining the Afghan government by ignoring its authority, and accusing them of patronizing warlords and overlooking the corruption and waste in their own aid programs. Earlier this month, Karzai...
...Karzai, of course, may simply be grandstanding with a view to bolstering his support ahead of the election. It was rescheduled, after all, because security conditions preclude holding a credible poll, and unless the Taliban is rolled back in much of the south and east of the country, even an August poll would remain in doubt - despite the fact that Karzai's term of office ends in May. But the criticisms he raises resonate with much of the Afghan public, which is particularly angered by air strikes that often inflict civilian casualties. Arming local warlords to fight the Taliban, Karzai...