THE ONGOING debate in Washington about whether to send up to 40,000 more US troops to Afghanistan was given an extra twist yesterday.
Senator John Kerry, chairman of the influential Senate foreign relations committee, told CNN it would be “entirely irresponsible” for President Barack Obama to deploy more American soldiers “when we don’t even have an election finished and know who the president is”.
Mr Kerry was referring to the possibility of a run-off election for the Afghan presidency between the incumbent, Hamid Karzai, and his main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah. Mr Karzai won an election in August, but his victory was sullied by accusations of widespread fraud. A recount by the United Nations-backed Electoral Complaints Commission is almost complete, and it is expected to reduce Mr Karzai’s 55 per cent share of the votes cast.
There is also speculation that Mr Karzai and Mr Abdullah might enter into a power-sharing deal without a further poll. This prospect is not unwelcome in Washington, since the logistics of holding a nationwide election in a country as forbidding as Afghanistan would mean that, if a run-off did not take place within the next few weeks, it would probably have to be postponed until the spring.
Mr Obama cannot wait forever. There are about 68,000 American troops in Afghanistan. The top US commander there, Gen Stanley McChrystal, sent a memo to defence secretary Robert Gates on August 30th in which he warned that unless more troops were provided, the eight-year mission undertaken by the US and its allies would “likely result in failure”.
Since then, Mr Obama has held five major meetings to review strategy. Another is scheduled for this week, and White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said yesterday another meeting would take place next week.
Mr Obama is determined to be deliberative about the process, asserting that it would be reckless to commit more troops without being confident the overall American strategy stands a solid chance of success. But critics argue he is being indecisive. John Bolton, who served as the US ambassador to the UN under president George W Bush, called Mr Obama's deliberations "agonising" and accused him of "dithering" in an article in yesterday's Los Angeles Times.
The intervention by Mr Kerry, who was the Democratic Party’s 2004 presidential candidate, underlined a growing sense of frustration in Washington with Mr Karzai – a frustration rooted not just in the current electoral uncertainty but in the broader perception that Mr Karzai’s government has proven ineffective and prone to corruption.
In another TV interview yesterday, Mr Kerry, speaking from Kabul, told CBS: “I think this is a moment for President Karzai, frankly, to step up and help to share with the world a better vision for how the government here is going to deliver and be a full partner.”