Newly freed from the bruising domestic battle over healthcare reform, US President Obama was expected to turn his attention to other important things on his agenda. Afghanistan would certainly be at the top of the list of those other priorities, and over the weekend Mr Obama demonstrated this by flying into Afghanistan for the briefest of visits.
The US president delivered what appears to be a stern message to the Afghan government led by President Karzai to cut corruption, improve governance, step up the fight against the drug trade, overhaul the judicial system, and make the Afghan government more representative of the various ethnic and geographical regions in the country. If the laundry list of complaints/demands sounds familiar, it is. Americans have long been unhappy with the administration of Mr Karzai, which they accuse of following a self-serving agenda that is making it even more difficult to create a semblance of a modern state in Afghanistan.
However, those longstanding complaints have taken on a new urgency under the Obama administration, which has made a risky political commitment to step up the war against militancy in Afghanistan. Ultimately, for the counter-insurgency to succeed in Afghanistan, it has to have local ownership, not just of the military component but also the civilian component. But the Americans have been alarmed that whatever gains the military 'surge' may yield over the next year may be wasted if the Afghan government cannot show itself to be a viable alternative to what the Taliban have to offer. Remember that the Taliban focused on eliminating corruption, drugs and crime and delivering speedy justice during their stint in charge — and won the appreciation of ordinary Afghans for doing so. The Americans are afraid, and rightly so, that unless Mr Karzai and his government get their act together and start demonstrating that they have the ability to deliver basic public goods and services, the Afghan government will never establish itself as a desirable alternative to the Taliban insurgency.
Will upbraiding Mr Karzai do the trick though? That is unlikely for two reasons. One, the Americans are working on a timeline that has little to do with the situation in Afghanistan. 'Fixing' Afghanistan isn't a question of months or even a couple of years; building a centralised state where there hasn't been one is a matter of many, many years, perhaps even decades. Two, Mr Karzai is a wily operator who knows how to cling to power through wheeling and dealing with Afghanistan's various power brokers. Becoming a born-again democrat focused on good governance may be a stretch too far for someone so deep in the muck of Afghan politics.
