Karzai’s victory pushes US strategy

Steven Stanek, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: November 04. 2009 12:56AM UAE / November 3. 2009 8:56PM GMT

A large poster of Afghan President Hamid Karzai is carried on a vehicle by supporters as they celebrate his victory in Herat. Morteza Nikoubazl / Reuters

WASHINGTON // Hamid Karzai’s victory in the disputed Afghan presidential election puts increased pressure on Barack Obama to decide on a way forward in Afghanistan and could make it harder for the US president to justify a significant increase in the number of American troops there.

Mr Karzai was declared president for the next five years after Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission cancelled a runoff vote on Monday. His opponent in the race, Abdullah Abdullah, withdrew his name from the runoff a day earlier.

Without a second round of voting, the election result leaves lingering doubts about whether Mr Karzai, tainted by allegations of corruption, can become the credible partner in Afghanistan that the Obama administration has said is key to turning the tide in the eight-year war.

Mr Obama congratulated Mr Karzai in a private telephone call on Monday, but he warned his Afghan counterpart that continued US support is contingent on improvements in the Afghan government’s performance.

“I emphasised that this has to be a point in time in which we begin to write a new chapter,” Mr Obama told reporters following a meeting with Fredrik Reinfeldt, the prime minister of Sweden. “The proof is not going to be in words. It’s going to be in deeds.”

Mr Karzai, for his part, vowed in a press conference in Kabul yesterday to crack down on government misconduct and unite the country. “Our government’s image has been tainted by corruption,” Mr Karzai said. “We will strive by any means possible to eradicate this stain.”

“The future government will be a government that reflects all the people of Afghanistan,” Mr Karzai added.

“We hope that no one feels themselves isolated from this future government.”

Mr Karzai’s relationship with his US counterparts has cooled considerably since the Bush years, when he was in frequent contact with the White House and enjoyed a close personal relationship with George W Bush.

Joseph Biden, the US vice president, and others have increasingly doubted the sincerity of the Afghan president’s promises to fight corruption.

The Obama administration refrained from congratulating the Afghan president immediately following the August vote and put heavy pressure on Mr Karzai last month to accept a runoff election, a move they hoped would secure an outcome seen as legitimate by a majority of Afghans.

Ronald Neumann, who served as US ambassador to Afghanistan from 2005 to 2007, however, said the concern about Mr Karzai’s credibility is “largely a western conceit” that “doesn’t mirror Afghan reality”.

Even after nearly a quarter of the ballots were thrown out by international auditors, he pointed out, Mr Karzai still enjoyed a higher percentage of votes than do some victorious US presidents. He added that Afghans were wary of a potentially dangerous and costly runoff vote, which most predicted would have resulted in a Karzai victory.

“I think Afghans are perfectly happy to move on,” he said. “The question of legitimacy for Karzai is really going to be questions of security and what the government can deliver. If the government begins to work better, it will be fully legitimate in Afghan eyes.”

Mr Obama has been engrossed for weeks in a rigorous review of the US war strategy, a process that has taken longer than expected and drawn increased criticism from political rivals who say it is taking too much time.

Many believed the president was waiting until after the November 7 runoff to make a final decision on a request submitted by his top commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, for an additional 44,000 troops.

Polls show the US public split on the prospect of a troop increase, while support for the president’s handling of the war has dropped.

Republicans, meanwhile, have turned up the pressure on Mr Obama to end the prolonged deliberations, with some saying that any further delay could harm US troops.

“There are no more excuses,” John Boehner, the House minority leader, said on Monday in reaction to the election commission’s decision to affirm Mr Karzai’s victory. “It’s time for the Obama administration to give our commander on the ground the resources he needs to protect our troops and achieve the goals the president has said he supports.”

The developments “only heighten the need for decisive, resolute action by the United States concerning Afghanistan,” Senator John McCain, Mr Obama’s rival in last year’s presidential election, said in a statement.

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, has continued to say that the president will not rush his decision, noting that he expects the strategic review to wrap up “in the coming weeks”. In a briefing with reporters on Monday, he said the final decision was not tied to the outcome of the election.

Mr Obama embarks on a 10-day trip to Asia on November 11.



sstanek@thenational.ae