Is Karzai a stooge?
To add to Kevin's post on the Karzai-Obama spat, it seems to me that there's a third interpretation of the recent feud that falls somewhere between "President Obama's being naive and irresponsible" and "President Karzai's an out of control drug addict." That is that the spat is good for all parties. It's good for the U.S., because it sends a warning to Afghan officials that American aid is not a given and that there must be some movement toward meeting Washington's expectations with respect to corruption and governance. I largely sympathize with the idea that these messages should mostly be conveyed behind closed doors, but there's another important constituency that needs to hear Obama's message: the American taxpayer.
It seems perverse for the U.S. to take the position that Afghanistan has an open-ended claim on American blood and treasure irrespective of how its leaders behave (it's perverse stance in good times, too). A public scolding at a minimum assures Americans that the president is mindful that resources are limited and not to be doled out lightly.
It's good for Karzai, too, because it establishes his nationalist bona fides and demonstrates to the Afghan people that he's not a Western stooge - a position that, perhaps more than corruption, would undermine his legitimacy in the eyes of the Afghan people.
This is obviously an optimistic reading of events and it could very well turn out that either Obama is being reckless in publicly spanking Karzai or that Karzai is out of control - or that both men are just groping their way blindly toward an unseen end-game.
(AP Photo)
