U.S. seeks to position Karzai as wartime leader

In the view of many U.S. officials, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been a reluctant commander in chief, hesitant to take a direct role in the military fight against the Taliban insurgency.

But during his visit to the U.S. this week, American officials have been trying to emphasize Karzai’s position as a wartime leader.

U.S. officials noted repeatedly that Karzai gave his approval for the recent military operation in Marja, in Helmand province, and that he is helping plan the upcoming Kandahar mission.

Karzai’s itinerary included visits to Arlington National Cemetery and Walter Reed Army Medical Center. And on Friday he capped the trip by going to Ft. Campbell, Ky., to meet with soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division who are about to deploy to Afghanistan.

Karzai’s trip was intended in large part to help ease strains with Washington after months of pressure from the Obama administration to tackle corruption. The public squabbling prompted Karzai to quip that even he might consider joining the Taliban.

Both sides came away this week with apparent gains. Karzai received pledges that the United States would strive to avoid civilian casualties, and he was promised long-term strategic ties. Obama got assurances that Karzai would work to improve his government and to support the effort in Kandahar.

If there were any major disagreements during the White House meetings, the Obama and Karzai governments succeeded in keeping them quiet.

The United States’ objective of raising Karzai’s profile as a leader of military operations was intended to improve his standing among Afghans and Americans and to get him more invested in the war effort.

The top Western commander in Afghanistan, U.S. Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, went so far to suggest that Karzai was one of his bosses.

“As a military commander, I think of him as a wartime leader for whom, essentially, I work,” McChrystal said on PBS.

With pictures of Karzai kneeling before the grave of a fallen soldier and shaking hands with U.S. troops preparing to deploy, the Afghan president presented himself to the American public as a committed wartime leader, appreciative of U.S. sacrifices.

“He is learning how to be an American-style commander in chief,” said John A. Nagl, the president of the Center for a New American Security. “The critical variable in whether we succeed or fail in Afghanistan is the support of the American people.”

Experts said it remained to be seen whether Karzai would continue to embrace that role when he returns home.

“If he is going to be seen as commander in chief, then it means participating in a helpful way, supporting what the coalition is doing — if he thinks they are doing the right thing,” said Jeffrey A. Dressler, a research analyst at the Institute for the Study of War. “Stepping into the role is done more through actions than pomp and circumstance.”

Karzai often resists leaving the capital, Kabul, to go to the front lines or to hold rallies with the troops, to the frustration of his American advisors. When he visited Marja immediately before the joint offensive there, U.S. officials played up the visit.

Stephen D. Biddle, a military scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Karzai was reluctant to play the part of an enthusiastic commander in chief in part because he has fashioned himself as a mediator, a role more comfortable to him than that of warrior. And in a society that has been engulfed in war for three decades, the role of conciliator plays better with the Afghan public.

But he also appears to be hedging his bets. Karzai’s criticisms of the war effort are sometimes designed to make it appear as if he sees the campaign as a U.S. fight, not a joint U.S.-Afghan operation. And he avoids describing Taliban fighters as insurgents, instead calling them “our disenchanted brothers.”

Karzai probably hedges because he is unsure of the scale and length of the American commitment to Afghanistan, Biddle said.

“If the U.S. commitment is going to be insufficient to defeat the Taliban, he is going to have to make some sort of accommodation with them at some point,” he said.

But, Biddle added, the U.S. wants Karzai to take on the role of a commander in chief to stop him from distancing himself from the war. “It is part of a longer-term, larger effort getting Karzai to stop acting like an innocent bystander,” he said.

julian.barnes@latimes.com