Karzai has overplayed his hand
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Afghan leader wants US troops to stay till after presidential election but his request is way too late
In line with his old self, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has thrown a monkey wrench into what many believed was a done deal between the US and Afghanistan on an agreement that would keep American and foreign troops in the country beyond 2014.
After a year of intense negotiation between US and Afghan officials to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), a pact that would permit US troops and some Nato troops to remain in the country, Karzai is now saying he wants to wait until after the next presidential election scheduled for April 2014. Karzai wants to do it “properly and with dignity”.
Washington said they wanted to do it before the end of this year and that this was their last offer.
But if Karzai was really sincere about doing it “properly and with dignity”, then why did he call on the Loya Jirga, a consultative tribal assembly, to convene in Kabul to give him a stamp of approval for the BSA?
Without the deal – and Washington is saying it has to be secured by the end of this year – the US would have to pull all of its troops out of Afghanistan. At stake is US$4.1 billion a year in support to the Afghan National Security Forces, and possibly much development aid.
The number of foreign troops after 2014 would be about 10 per cent of the 87,000 at present. The US will provide more than half of the total number of troops whose job would be to provide logistical support to the Afghan soldiers, along with intelligence and air support. Since a resurgence of al-Qaeda is pos-sible, the US will keep Special Forces units to do counter-terrorist work.
Although it was largely staged and a formality, the Loya Jirga gave their blessing, in principle, to
permit US and foreign troops to remain in their country. But Karzai wants to milk this situation by delaying it until the middle of next year.
There were also reports that Karzai demanded that President Barack Obama apologise and acknowledge that there have
been military mistakes in the past and that the US would commit itself to avoid such mistakes in the future.
While both capitals deny such a demand was made, they, however, came up with a similar statement that basically said the US regretted civilian casualties during the 12-year-long war with the Taleban. It was not the first time that America has said this but for Karzai’s sake it may just be enough to get him to stop dragging his feet. What more will come from this remains to be seen.
After two terms, it is perhaps understandable that Karzai wants to be remembered as a great Afghan leader rather then a stooge of foreign powers. But the reckless manner in which he has played his hand – or overplayed it – suggests he was more concerned about his ego rather then the well being of his nation.
If he didn’t want foreign troops to stick around after 2014, he should have said something from the beginning. Too much has been spilled and too much has been spent for key stockholders like him to be playing games at this point in time.
