Related to a previous post today:
After more than a year of watching America’s ability to influence President Hamid Karzai ebb, Obama administration officials now admit privately that the tough-love approach Mr. Obama adopted when he came to power may have been a big mistake.
The difference in approach was evident in two recent scenes on Air Force One.
Scene 1, March 28: Gen. James L. Jones, the national security adviser, visited reporters flying with the president from Washington to Kabul and promised that President Obama would take on the Afghan president for ignoring American demands on corruption and drug trafficking.
Scene 2, Friday: General Jones visited reporters, this time traveling with the president to Washington from Prague, and told them that Mr. Obama had sent Mr. Karzai a thank-you note expressing gratitude to the Afghan leader for dinner in Kabul. “It was a respectful letter,” General Jones said.
The temptation is great to get snarky here, but I'll leave that with the title to this post. If President Obama and his administration have a new-found respect for the possible in Afghanistan then that should be appreciated and encouraged, and not used as a political bludgeon.
It would be a hell of a lot easier if they would drop the Bush bashing though.
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