Obama Tells Karzai: Time for a New Chapter

(CBS/AP)  Updated 4:51 p.m. Eastern Time

President Barack Obama welcomed Afghan President Hamid Karzai's election with as much admonishment as praise, telling America's partner in war that he expects a more serious effort to end corruption in his government and ready his nation to ultimately defend itself.

"I emphasized that this has to be a point in time in which we begin to write a new chapter," Obama said in describing his congratulatory phone call to Karzai. The U.S. president said that when Karzai offered back assurances, Obama told him that "the proof is not going to be in words. It's going to be in deeds."

Obama's message of stern solidarity came as he considers sending tens of thousands more U.S. troops into the war zone in Karzai's country.

"We are looking forward to consulting closely with [Karzai's] government in the weeks and months to come to assure that the Afghan people are actually seeing progress on the ground," the president said.

Karzai won a second term Monday when competitor Abdullah Abdullah pulled out of the Nov. 7 runoff for fear it would be doomed by fraud just as the first voting in August was. The fraud-marred election cost Karzai international credibility.

House Republican leader John Boehner said Monday that Obama has "no more excuses" for not announcing a decision on his strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan now that Abdullah has exited the race.

"Now that it is clear that President Karzai will remain in office, the White House has no further pretext for delaying the decision on giving General McChrystal the resources he needs to achieve our goals in Afghanistan," said Boehner. "Delaying the decision puts our men and women fighting there in greater danger every single day."

The White House put its weight behind the legitimacy of the outcome after helping to broker a runoff that never happened. Obama called the process "messy" but said Karzai won in accordance with Afghan law.

The White House repeatedly said Abdullah had pulled out purely for his own political and personal reasons.

The collapse of the planned run-off increases pressure on the Obama administration to quickly end its lengthy deliberations about whether to commit more U.S. forces to a worsening war. Obama may announce his revamped war strategy, including a decision on sending more troops, early next week before a planned overseas trip.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs acknowledged that Karzai's win by default is a factor in the coming decision about troops but did not say the timetable for an announcement has changed. The administration continues to say it will happen in the "coming weeks."

In recounting his call to Karzai, Obama spent most of his time saying what he expects from his fellow president: more diligent efforts to end corruption, cooperation in accelerating the training of Afghan security forces, tangible benefits in the lives of the Afghan people.

Those aren't just Obama's standards. He is under pressure to show Congress and the public that the U.S. is dealing with a trustworthy partner, particularly if it is going to send more troops there. Many Americans have grown weary of the war and are questioning its worth.

About 68,000 U.S. troops are already in Afghanistan, where October was the deadliest month for U.S. forces. Several thousands NATO troops from various countries are also committed to a war that has stretched into its ninth year and is focused on combatting insurgents and dismantling al Qaeda terrorists.

Obama said Karzai needs to "take advantage of the international community's interest in his country."

Indeed, the White House made clear that the election gave Karzai legal legitimacy but not necessarily any new boost of credibility.

[rafaeldrc]

Obama has called for Karzai's government to reign in corruption. Having seen corrupt countries like Romania, I can tell you that rooting out corruption is very hard to do and takes a couple of generations, particularly, where poverty prevails or the elite take advantage of citizens with less control or influence. I don't see Karzai being able to change anything except to color of the veneer.

[jefleshman]

rafaeldrc very nicely stated "where poverty prevails or the elite take advantage of citizens with less control or influence"

Yes where there is less poverty in the world, there seems to be less corruption!

I agree

[searingtruth]

"Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."
Carl Sagan - Pale Blue Dot

A Future of the Brave

[stryker54]

Change you can believe in. Too bad both countries are corrupt, the USA and Afganistan. I sure wouldn't congratulate this guy. Does Barrack really believe this corrupt govt. is going to change. I guess not any more than ours. Sad but true.

[spaceatoms]

The opinion polls are a joke. Right now the country took a huge step backwards as gas is going back up to fuel Theft Street and speculation and compensation are back on the rise and instead of stopping the war, President Obama is going to escalate the war like LBJ. Its typical democratic policy and it happens every time. You want jobs, you can go fight the war young man instead of an education and a family and come home without both your legs and I'll salute you, this is patronizing the people at the extreme.

[searingtruth]

"And so engaged we were forever, in battles that should never have been fought, and have never been won."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave

[searingtruth]

It is sad that we rarely, as a society or individuals, reflect upon the true human cost of war.

On all sides.

Perhaps if we did we would not unsheathe our swords so often.
ST


"My saunter began in the garden, just a few misplaced parts there. I couldn't really tell what they were, so I just walked through the broken door to the front room.

And there it was. That head. As a misplaced ornament upon the armchair. And then looking down I saw the infants body and my knees slightly buckled. I had seen much horror, the body parts of children were a daily chore, but these bodies were just a little too intact. I could tell where the neck used to attach both.

And since then I cannot be human.

For I had fired the rocket that destroyed them.

For the good of all humankind."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave

[Virgil-1]

Should have told him it's time for a change!

[armyoftwelve]

He did, then karzai took 99 cents out of his pocket and Obama said " you've already got it"

[searingtruth]

Fellow citizens, we are now fighting in two foreign civil wars, Iraq and Afghanistan, and supporting two corrupt leaders.

History is repeating itself, again.

Let us hope we have the wisdom to withdraw and let their people decide their own fate, instead of continuing to sacrifice the blood of our own precious children for absolutely nothing.
ST

"A peoples revolution cannot be won by a foreign army."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave

[pickaguitar1]

YES WE CAN!

[Biggest_Rick]

It is now time to make a decision on what to do about further troops. The additional troops will be to give security to people in the villages that they will not be attacked the minute the Americans go back to their bases. It will be to base troops IN villages much the same way the surge in Iraq worked to bring some level of stability there. The American troops would then be replaced by trained Afghani police and troops to maintain the security. I agree the corruption needs to be fought tooth and nail and I think the president was right to admonish Karzai, but in the end, the Afghan people need to hold their politicians accountable.