Obama ‘plans to undermine’ Karzai

Monday, March 23. The Obama administration plans to reduce the authority of Afghan President Hamid Karzai by planting a US-friendly figure in a new chief executive or prime ministerial role in the Kabul government, according to a report in today's Guardian.

In a further bid to reduce Karzai's power, President Barack Obama wants funds be diverted from the corrupt central government and channelled directly to the provinces, say reporters Julian Borger and Ewan McAskill.

The challenge to Karzai's authority has apparently emerged from a major White House rethink on how to deal with Afghanistan and Pakistan. Details of the review are due to be unveiled by President Obama at a special conference in The Hague on March 31.

The Guardian report claims that US and European officials have become "disillusioned with the extent of the corruption and incompetence in the Karzai government", and quotes a senior US diplomat who claims that Karzai is not "delivering" as the leader of Afghanistan. "If we are going to support his government, it has to be run properly," said the unnamed official.

Obama is likely to "skate over" the challenge to Karzai's role when he delivers the broader aspects of his review on March 31. "The risk for the US is that the imposition of a technocrat alongside Karzai would be viewed as colonialism," they say, "even though that figure would be an Afghan."

What Obama will discuss at the conference in The Hague are plans to support a vast increase in the size of the Afghan army and to step up efforts to find fugitive al-Qaeda leaders hiding in the badlands between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Speaking last night on CBS TV's 60 Minutes (see video below), Obama said his new stategy for the region would be based on reducing the threat to America rather than engineering a fully functioning democracy in Afghanistan, as the Bush administration had wanted. "Making sure that al-Qaeda cannot attack the US homeland and US interests and our allies. That's our number one priority," he said.

Writing for Politico, David Cloud says Obama must answer four questions at the March 31 conference.

First, how long will it take to bring real stability to Afghanistan? Experts say it could be as long as five or six years, but "taking on that sort of commitment could end up consuming Obama's presidency, the way Iraq did to Bush's," says Cloud.

Second, why will a proposed 'civilian surge' of agriculture, law enforcement and engineering experts in the country succeed where a similar plan failed in Iraq?

Third, can Obama afford to send even more troops to Afghanistan, beyond the 17,000 soldiers he pledged last month?

Fourth, shouldn't Obama be focusing his efforts on Pakistan rather than Afghanistan - even if this is difficult because of the weak Pakistani government?

FIRST POSTED MARCH 23, 2009