It is by no means clear that the Obama administration has learnt from the terrible farce it has made of the recent exercise in Afghanistan to elect a new president. At a time when all-round unity was needed to confront a rising Taliban, Washington’s foreign policy amateurs divided America’s local allies fighting extremism in Afghanistan. Having come to office prejudiced against Hamid Karzai — who was seen as a protégé of the unpopular George W. Bush — Obama’s White House publicly signalled its displeasure against the Afghan president. It then sought to undermine Karzai, tried to delay the elections, and when it could not, chose to pit the well-regarded former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah against the incumbent. When Karzai was declared the winner after the first round, it alleged fraud, ordered a recount, and forced a run-off second round. In the end, the US and the international community could not sustain the process when power-sharing talks between the two men collapsed, Abdullah stood down, and the election commission declared Karzai the president for a second term.

If the Obama administration had managed to dislodge Karzai after pointing fingers at him, it would have earned some political respect and a bit of fear from its friends and enemies alike as a tough act to cope with in Afghanistan. In the unforgiving north-western marches of our subcontinent, the White House has come out looking like a bumbling neophyte. That Karzai has got the better of Washington throughout the last one year since the election of Barack Obama as US president, reveals how easy and dangerous it is for the West to un-derestimate the political sophistication of Afghan leaders. The time has come then for the Obama administration to shed its condescension towards Kabul and end its self-absorbed debate on Afghan policy that has become so thoroughly disconnected from ground realities.

... contd.