Tense Approach

Despite strenuous choreography: The U.S. visit by Afghan President Karzai shows how fragile the relationship between the two countries remains.

It was a highly choreographed appearance and was supposed to underline the new-found unity between the two presidents. In reality, the joint press conference with Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday in the East Room, the Great Hall of the White House, showed rather two things: First, how tense the relationship remains. And second, that the Americans may indeed know how they want to proceed with military action in Afghanistan, but that they still have no idea of what they should do politically.

But instead of the whip, they now try it with the carrot. The contrast to Karzai’s visit to Washington a year ago is more than obvious. Back then, the Afghan president was portended by harsh words that he would have to exercise more if he wanted U.S. support.

Reports of Discord “Simply Excessive”

This time, however, a red carpet was rolled out everywhere for Karzai: He was personally welcomed at the airport by U.S.-Afghanistan representative Richard Holbrooke. He met the heads of military and intelligence agencies, conferred with key ministers, including a long tête-à-tête with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, he dined with Vice President Joseph Biden and got a gig alongside Obama.

The anger of the past weeks and months seems to have blown over: Karzai’s threat to make common cause with the Taliban, the American’s moaning concerning corruption and incompetence of the Afghan government. Obama only said that Afghans have been making “progress” in the fight against corruption and that reports of a rift with Karzai had “simply been exaggerated.”

However, the U.S. ambassador in Kabul, Karl Eicke Berry, doubted in a confidential memo late last year that Karzai might still be a “reasonable strategic partner” of the U.S. government. Secretary Clinton had made the reconstruction aid for Afghanistan dependent on the combat of favoritism.

Unexpectedly Fierce Resistance

Instead, Obama praised — though recognizably strained — Karzai’s efforts to curb corruption; “progress has been made,” he formulated too convolutedly. He promised that America would not abandon Afghanistan when U.S. troops, as he announced last year, will begin their withdrawal in the summer of 2011. And he pointedly supported Karzai’s efforts to achieve conciliation with Taliban supporters who are willing to lay down their weapons and break their links to al-Qaida.

On the quiet, a government representative in the White House admitted that there was still no clear concept for civil reconstruction in Afghanistan. Apparently, the subject of whether the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank should become more involved has been discussed.

Obama officially stated that the U.S. military in Afghanistan was progressing as planned. But in fact, the unexpectedly fierce resistance against U.S. soldiers in Marjdscha, province Helmand, is not a good sign for the planned summer offensive in the province of Kandahar.