Afghanistan's Caped President Hamid Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai remains a partner for the US although he disapproves Washington's campaign in the country.
American politicians believe that Mr Karzai`s critical remarks reveal 'impatience of a country that has been living in a state of war for 30 consecutive years'.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said that his country wants to bring Afghanistan back to normal life but added that this will definitely take time. The Pentagon chief noted that a Nato summit in Lisbon approved a four-year plan on handing over control of some areas in Afghanistan to the local law-enforcement agencies within a year or two.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has also touched upon the issue. He said that the UK troops will leave Afghanistan by 2015, and stressed that the British army has been staying there not to build an ideal democratic society but to help the Afghan police ensure security amid Al-Qaeda threats.
Judging from what politicians say one may think that the situation in Afghanistan is not that bad after all.
Recently, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said that a Nato-led mission, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, has achieved remarkable progress, with corruption remaining the only obstacle to stability in the region.
British military chiefs do not agree, however, and insist that the situation remains quite complicated and will hardly change for the better in the next four years.
It is evident that the US and British troops have got 'stuck' in Afghanistan. The Taliban are not going to surrender and continue to control the biggest part of the Afghan territory.
At the same time, relations between the ISAF and the Afghan authorities (and President Karzai in particular) have grown tense.
It appears that Washington and London have failed to learn sad lessons of the Iraq campaign, although Mr Cameron has said that ''the government would learn lessons from Iraq -- where there was no plan for winning the peace".
Meanwhile,
...back at the ranch...
a Canadian envoy has warned that President Karzai may "burn his bridges" with Nato as a potential fallout over the newly released US diplomatic cables, a Canadian paper said on Wednesday.