WASHINGTON (AP) — In public, Afghan President Hamid Karzai smiled and thanked President Barack Obama for all the help. They appeared to have patched things up after an unusually deep and public rift between allies.
The clever Karzai, however, also laced his message Wednesday at a White House news conference with the subliminal but steely reminder that he is and will remain president of Afghanistan for years to come, and he was not going to be pushed around, no matter how big the debt to Washington.
The U.S.-Afghan relationship almost blew apart earlier this spring when Obama paid an unannounced visit to Kabul.
At the time, Obama delivered an overt warning to Karzai to purge his government of corruption and cronyism.
That prompted a series of public outbursts by Karzai, including his declaration that he might join the Taliban insurgency if his U.S. critics did not stop pressuring him.
For a few days in April, it was not at all clear Karzai would be welcome on this long-planned visit.
The troubles weren’t new. Obama had been heading for a collision with Karzai even before moving into the White House.
As a candidate, he criticized the "drifting" war effort under President George W. Bush and likewise was hard on Karzai for governing poorly and failing to end endemic corruption.
After the public brouhaha of recent weeks, however, somewhere in the administration voices began speaking to the reality that Karzai — like him or not — was Washington’s necessary partner.
Instead of canceling the visit, the administration has treated the Afghan leader and his huge delegation with full honors and dignity.
Here’s why:
"By the time my term of office completes in four years, four and a half years from today," Karzai said, "Afghanistan is working hard to provide security for the whole of the country."
The important part of that statement is not Karzai’s ambition to take control of security. The Americans want that as much as he claims to.
Instead, the sharp edge was the reminder from Karzai that he is at the helm and will be for some years to come. That, of course, anticipates he survives in the violent world he inhabits — survival that depends heavily on the U.S. military.
Given the leverage he believes he holds, Karzai appears to have won reluctant support from Obama for an upcoming Afghan peace conference at which the Afghan leader hopes to entice Taliban fighters to lay down their arms.
He said those willing to make peace would have to prove they were not part of al-Qaida or any terrorist group and would support democracy and the rights of women.
"There are thousands of them who are country boys who have been driven by intimidation or fear," Karzai said.
Fair enough, said Obama, whose administration has been leery of moving too quickly toward peace talks. There was, however, a "but."
"One of the things I emphasized to President Karzai," Obama said, "is that the incentives for the Taliban to lay down arms … and make peace with the Afghan government in part depends on our effectiveness in breaking their momentum militarily. And that’s why we put in the additional U.S. troops."
Without mentioning it, the two men were publicly jousting over U.S. plans next month to open an offensive in Kandahar, Karzai’s hometown and the Taliban birthplace. The Afghan leader has been trying to limit American plans in the insurgent stronghold.
In the end, the two leaders left their own peace conference able to assert that these kinds of spats just happen and the relationship is all the better for it.
Karzai: "There are moments that we speak frankly to each other. And that frankness will only add to the strength of the relationship and contribute to the successes that we have."
Obama: "Our job is to be a good friend and to be frank with President Karzai in saying, ‘Here’s where we think we’ve got to put more effort.’ President Karzai’s job is to represent his country and insist that its sovereignty is properly respected, even as he goes about the hard task of bringing about these changes in both his government and his economy."
The message was diplomatically put by each leader, but the inherent tension oozed from the words of both men. There was little assurance that one understood the other much better than before they met.
