Hillary emerges as key link to Karzai
It is far from clear that President Obama can depend on President Hamid Karzai to bring order to this violent country but it is becoming clear that he will depend on Hillary Clinton to be his go-between in dealing with the mercurial Afghan leader. In a visit to Kabul, during which she held a 90-minute, one-on-one session with Mr.Karzai on Wednesday, and in an intense telephone call a few weeks ago in the after-maths of Afghanistan’s election, Secretary of State Clinton has built an unlikely rapport with the Afghan leader, according to administration officials.
It is a new and risky role for Ms Clinton - one that thrusts her into the thick of the administration’s most critical international problem, but that also hitches her reputation to a leader who has often proved unreliable. If Mr. Karzai lets down the White House again, Ms Clinton, as his principal intermediary with the administration, could find herself damaged along with him. Ms Clinton, who got to know Mr. Karzai in 2005 when she took him to Fort Drum in upstate New York to thank US veterans of the Afghan war, seems to recognize the potential dangers.
“When I came into the administration, I was one of the few people who had a long-term positive relationship with President Karzai,” Mrs.Clinton said in an interview on Thursday, hours after seeing him get sworn in. “I continue to believe he has a tremendous historical opportunity.” But she added, “That does not mean you make excuses for behavior that you want to see changed; you constantly push back.”
