Word: obamas
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...Just hours before Obama touched down at Bagram air base on Sunday evening, Karzai had flown home from Tehran, where he celebrated the Persian new year with America's least favorite foreign leader, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. That followed a day trip to Kabul earlier this month by the Iranian President. (See pictures of President Obama in Afghanistan...
...joint press conference at Karzai's heavily guarded Arg Palace, both he and Obama put a traditional diplomatic gloss on their meeting. Obama said "the American people are encouraged by the progress that is being made," while Karzai lauded Washington's continued commitment to Afghanistan...
...earlier, aboard Air Force One, National Security Adviser James Jones gave a grittier briefing to reporters, telling them that Obama wanted Karzai to "understand that in his second term, there are certain things that have not been paid attention to, almost since Day One." To win the elections, marred by fraud, Karzai had to make deals with several unsavory warlords, who are once again represented in his Cabinet. Opposition figures say that these warlords are running their government departments like personal cash machines. Rather than dining alone on rice and kebabs with Karzai at the palace, Obama insisted on being...
...Karzai had enjoyed cordial relations with former President George W. Bush, but Obama's team of Afghan advisers came in believing that the President, who showed little skill or enthusiasm for reining in the warlords and corrupt technocrats, was part of the problem rather than the solution. Karzai's mistrust of Washington grew during last fall's presidential campaign, when he became convinced - with good reason - that U.S. State Department officials were mounting a last-minute charge to champion other candidates...
...Karzai is also at odds with the Obama Administration over how to pursue the planned reconciliation outreach to the insurgents. The Afghan leader insists that such efforts will only bring peace if they include negotiations with senior Taliban leaders like Mullah Omar, but right now the U.S. insists that outreach efforts must be confined to peeling off what it calls the "accidental terrorists" - those who joined the Taliban for money or as a result of tribal connections - while continuing to hunt down the pro-al-Qaeda leaders of the Afghan insurgency, which would include Mullah Omar...