Canny Karzai

Big powers playing the Great Game tend to underestimate the political wiles of their local partners in Afghanistan. The British (in the 19th century) and more recently the Russians (in the 1970s and 1980s) were constantly surprised by the Afghan rulers. Contrary to the perception that outsiders dictate terms to them, it is the Afghans who excel at manipulating the intruders. Afghan rulers often outlast their external benefactors.

US President Barack Obama appears to have ignored these lessons in dealing with the Afghan leader Hamid Karzai. As it took charge in early 2009, the Obama administration made no secret of its dislike for Karzai, who it thought was not held accountable by President George W. Bush. Sensing that the Obama administration might dump him, Karzai outflanked Washington in the last few months. Washington now finds itself in a spot — signalling interest in alternatives to Karzai but unable to engineer, shall we say, a ‘regime change’ in Kabul.

In a recent interview to the French daily Le Figaro, Karzai presented himself as an Afghan nationalist standing up to the Americans. “It is in no one’s interest to have an Afghan president who has become an American puppet,” Karzai declared.

Responding to corruption charges against his friends and family, “the Americans attack Karzai in an underhand fashion because they want him to be more amenable. They are wrong. It is in their interest ... that Afghanistan’s people respect their president,” Karzai said, referring to himself in the third person. He reminded Washington that they have no alternative but to support him, irrespective of the charges of electoral fraud. “As far as the elections are concerned, there was fraud in 2004, there is today, and there will be tomorrow”. “Alas, it is inevitable in a nascent democracy,” Karzai added.

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