The issue: Obama and Karzai appear to be working together toward common goals in Afghanistan

Relations between Washington and our uncertain ally, the president of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, appear to have been patched up, if only temporarily.

After two days of meetings with President Barack Obama and his top advisers and commanders, Karzai pronounced the relationship between the two governments Òstrong and well-rooted.Ó And Obama in turn pledged to be Òa good friendÓ to Karzai.

WHATEVER Òperceived differencesÓ there were, Obama said, were overstated. Both presidents described it as just a case of good friends speaking frankly with each other.

Over the past year, the Obama administration has criticized the fixed voting in KarzaiÕs re-election and the corruption and incompetence of his government. Karzai responded by bizarrely threatening to switch sides and join the Taliban. When an invitation to the White House was withdrawn, Karzai invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Kabul for a pointedly friendly visit.

However much theyÕre privately irritated at each other, the two leaders had little choice but to put on a show of unity and common purpose. The war in Afghanistan, about to enter its ninth year, is at a critical juncture.

OBAMAÕS BUILDUP to 98,000 troops is almost complete. The U.S. military is about to launch a major offensive in and around Kandahar, the de facto Taliban capital. Later this month, Karzai is convening a peace conference in which he hopes to convince key Taliban factions to switch sides or at least lay down their weapons.

Bringing the Taliban back into the fold is critical because the U.S. commanders are convinced the solution to the war is political, not military. This summer, a major conference of donor countries is set to meet to map the way ahead for Afghanistan with particular emphasis on strengthening its civil institutions.

THE WAR IN IRAQ is winding down, a point given emphasis when new figures showed that in February, for the first time since the invasion in 2003, monthly military spending in Afghanistan, $6.7 billion, surpassed spending in Iraq, $5.5 billion. And by the end of the summer, when U.S. troops start leaving Iraq, the military commitment to Afghanistan will be larger.

Obama did reiterate his determination to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan in July 2011. Whether that will be a sound course militarily and diplomatically depends greatly on an Afghan government that is greatly more competent and greatly less corrupt.

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