Falling Outs

Can Obama Still Trust Karzai?

Afghan leader said to be ranting against U.S.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu isn’t the ally President Obama is most at odds with these days: That honor appears to belong to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, at least based on a new report in The New York Times. When Obama cancelled a trip Karzai planned to Washington this month after an independent panel discovered widespread fraud in Karzai’s reelection last year, the Afghan president was so furious that he invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to give an anti-American speech from the presidential palace. The Times says that “Mr. Karzai recently told lunch guests at the presidential palace that he believes the Americans are in Afghanistan because they want to dominate his country and the region, and that they pose an obstacle to striking a peace deal with the Taliban.” Says one associate who as at the lunch with Karzai, “He has developed a complete theory of American power. He believes that America is trying to dominate the region, and that he is the only one who can stand up to them.”