Reply #10: It's a bit complicated, for a change, from the GOP's perspective. [View All]

[Robb]

The simplest answer is as said above: Dubya put him in place, for all intents and purposes, so it fits their broader agenda for him to be there.

The more complex answer is the overtures the Obama administration has made to some of Karzai's ministers in terms of, if not actually ascending, then simply exerting more power from their positions, threaten to help speed an end to the conflict. A viable Afghanistan could be a reality before Obama's first term ends, especially if people like Omar Zakhilwal and Mohammad Hanif Atmar are allowed to implement some of their economic and reconciliation notions (they are the current ministers of finance and interior, respectively).

In order for them to do these things, Karzai must appear weak -- and fortunately Karzai's letting himself get played. Siding with Karzai, from a Western perspective and especially from the GOP's, is something of a last-ditch effort to throw a wrench in the works.

The good news is, Karzai managed to act like an idiot well in advance of this administration's efforts to empower those ministers became public knowledge, at least in the popular Western press. So the GOP is playing catch-up, putting them at a disadvantage.