How does this look for President Obama?
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is the consummate politician and even though he cannot run again for the presidency he looks at his political and personal survival post-presidency.
Likely there’s an element of payback in his aggressive behavior to the United States. We now know from former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in his book “Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War” that the Obama administration tried to eject Karzai from office in 2009.
Karzai uses the civilian deaths when U.S. forces are involved but notice he never mentions that there are civilian deaths when Afghan forces are involved. The civilian deaths are not the issue, position against the US is. Sadly civilian deaths happen in any war.
Karzai does not want to sign an agreement but pass it on to his successor which is a way of preserving his legacy. Karzai also wants us to talk with the Taliban. They refused to negotiate with him which relieves him of any failure in negotiating with the Taliban.
We have an Obama administration that has a planned political, precipitous withdrawal on December 31, 2014 coupled with being weak negotiators on foreign policy and that is a problem. I was in Afghanistan in December and spoke with a lot of Afghans. One concern is the potential breakdown of domestic security after the United States pulls out.
In the current climate that reflects another Obama administration’s ongoing failure.
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