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Afghan's Karzai charm attack may not be enough
[Al Arabiya Latest] He lunched at the White House, was feted at the State Department and dined with the vice president but will the special treatment lavished on Afghan President Hamid Karzai affect how he governs?
"What is being said in public is anodyne and choreographed. Talk is good but it is the actions that are taken that will be important," said Brian Katulis of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think-tank in Washington. The handshakes and uneasy smiles in the White House East Room on Wednesday contrasted with the war of words in recent weeks but that does not mean the Obama administration or U.S. lawmakers, who hold the purse strings, are fully confident. Questions persist in Congress, and quietly among U.S. officials, over whether the Afghan leader can be counted on to help momentum shift enough to allow U.S. troops to start coming home in July 2011 as promised. "He needs to work with the U.S. in both word and deed to promote economic development, build the Afghan security forces, combat extremists, tackle the drug trade, eliminate corruption, and improve systems of governance," said Senator Ted Kaufman, who was in Afghanistan last month. Former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad said Obama's better ties with Karzai were just a start. "If the situation improves, I think things in terms of relations between Karzai and the administration will also improve. But if they get worse or stay the same then I think we will come back to the same contentiousness," Khalilzad told PBS. Posted by: Fred 2010-05-14 |
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