US likely to stand by Karzai administration despite its faults

PRESIDENT Hamid Karzai’s leadership is weak, his government corrupt and nearly a third of the votes he won in the August election were thrown out as fakes.

But in the end, the Obama administration is likely to stick by the Afghan president. It has few other good options.

Karzai is far from the strong and capable partner that Washington had hoped would emerge from the electoral process that it and Western allies had pushed for in Afghanistan. They hoped the elections would stabilise the country and bleed support from the Taliban. But the process effectively ended in turmoil yesterday, even as the war with the Taliban intensifies. Karzai’s challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, bowed out only six days before a scheduled runoff, charging that no fair election was possible.

Now the United States, barring other developments, must find a way to work with Karzai and encourage him to embrace supporters of Abdullah and other groups opposed to the Taliban. Unless such groups are brought into the government, the Taliban are likely to grow in strength, capitalising on widespread public discontent with the ineffectual government.

Karzai enjoyed close ties with President George W Bush’s administration, which manoeuvred him into power when the Taliban first collapsed in 2001. But he fell out of favour when Barack Obama took office.

US officials have since been openly critical of Karzai as a weak leader, beholden to warlords whom he cultivated as allies. Nevertheless, the Obama administration clearly concluded at some point that, for all his faults, Karzai was the best it could get, given the ethnic and political realities of this impoverished country.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Abdullah’s decision to quit the race would not undermine the legitimacy of a Karzai administration.

Clinton said that, when Karzai accepted the runoff, “that bestowed legitimacy from that moment forward”.

She did not mention that Karzai agreed to the runoff only after strong American pressure, including marathon talks with Senator John Kerry.

Now the US administration must deal for the next five years with an Afghan leader whom Obama once described as suffering from a “bunker mentality” and out of touch with his own country.