White House reconsiders visit by Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Less than 10 days after President Obama paid his Afghanistan counterpart a surprise visit, the two countries find themselves engaged in an escalating verbal battle that threatens to eclipse the war on the ground.
In another shot across the political bow, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs on Tuesday warned that Afghanistan Hamid Karzai may not be welcome to meet at the White House with Obama on May 12, as previously scheduled.
“The remarks he made, I can’t imagine that anybody in this country found them anything other than troubling,” Gibbs said of Karzai. It was at least the third warning from Gibbs about Karzai’s comments.
On March 28, Obama visited Afghanistan to thank American troops for their efforts in the war against the Taliban, now in its ninth year. He also met with Karzai and very publicly warned him to end corruption and cronyism, an oft-repeated U.S. complaint.
If those comments played well in the United States, they certainly raised hackles with Karzai, who recently won another term in a much-disputed election. Karzai initially sharply criticized the United Nations and international community, accusing them of trying to weaken him and interfering in last year’s presidential election.
The State Department and White House fired back, saying they were deeply troubled by Karzai’s comments. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton even spent time talking to Karzai by telephone on Good Friday.
Over the weekend, Karzai reportedly told Afghan lawmakers that he would consider joining the Taliban if the United States continued to undermine him.
“Afghanistan will be fixed when its people trust that their president is independent and not a puppet,’ Karzai recently told tribal leaders. “We have to demonstrate our sovereignty. We have to demonstrate that we are standing up for our values.”
That did not go down well with Americans.
“On behalf of the American people, we’re frustrated with the remarks,” Gibbs said on Monday, and in response to questions, was even tougher on Tuesday, raising questions about Karzai’s proposed visit to Washington.
“We certainly would evaluate whatever continued or further remarks President Karzai makes as to whether that’s constructive to have such a meeting, sure,” Gibbs said.
The United States will soon have more than 100,000 troops in the Afghanistan. The United States and its NATO allies are planning a major offensive at Taliban positions near Kandahar, probably in June.
-- Michael Muskal
