After spending most of the past week in Washington, the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan can be excused if they leave town looking a little smug.

For weeks, Hamid Karzai and Asif Ali Zardari watched as senior officials of the new Obama administration publicly critiqued their leadership and all but openly courted their domestic rivals. Yet once they arrived in Washington, the two leaders were showered with attention, sympathy and promises of support from an administration whose handling of the mounting trouble in what it calls “Afpak” has been as mercurial as it has been energetic.

“I’m pleased that these two men, elected leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan, fully appreciate the seriousness of the threat that we face and have reaffirmed their commitment to confronting it,” Obama declared. He added: “The United States has made a lasting commitment to defeat al-Qaida but also to support the democratically elected sovereign governments of both Pakistan and Afghanistan. That commitment will not waver. And that support will be sustained.”

The strong statement was an important signal for elites in both countries who may have begun to wonder if the US was seeking to oust one or both leaders. It was also a needed corrective for a new American team that has been quick to understand the danger to vital US interests in the two countries but slower to grasp the realities of what US policy can accomplish, how quickly — and through whom.

In Afghanistan, tensions between US military commanders and Karzai were rising before Obama took office, partly because the Afghan president was seen as too accommodating toward ineffective or corrupt officials but also because Karzai insisted on publicly reproaching US and NATO forces for civilian casualties. The Obama administration’s initial strategy was to work around Karzai by focusing on ministers and governors considered pro-American. But US officials also began encouraging several leading Afghan politicians to challenge Karzai in the presidential election. The hope was to give the incumbent a scare and show Afghans that he was not propped up by Washington.

... contd.