Image via WikipediaBiden makes unannounced visit to AfghanistanKABUL - Vice President Biden flew into Kabul on Monday night for a round of high-level meetings as the Obama administration seeks assurance that its Afghanistanstrategy is taking hold.
Biden's unannounced visit brings him to the Afghan capital at a time of uncertainty in the war. Military commanders claim progressagainst the Taliban in the areas where they've concentrated U.S. troops, particularly in the southern Afghan provinces of Kandahar and Helmand. And President Obama last month called the war effort "on track."
But the insurgency remains potent in wide swaths of the country. The Afghan government has strongly opposed parts of the U.S. military strategy and not yet addressed its own problems with corruption. Insurgent leaders, meanwhile, operate safely from sanctuaries inPakistan.
U.S. military officials are waiting until spring, when the Taliban fighting season typically resumes, before drawing firmer conclusions about how much they've disrupted the insurgency and whether the Afghan government has stepped into the gap.
The recent death of Obama's special envoy to the region, Richard C. Holbrooke, removed a diplomatic heavyweight from the scene and raised questions about whether the Obama administration will shift its approach.
Holbrooke's acting successor, Frank Ruggiero, was also in Kabul on Monday following a visit to Pakistan. He came in part to assure officials in both countries that Holbrooke's position of special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan - a new office that has not always fit easily within the State Department
- will remain intact, although Ruggiero is not expected to keep the job in the long term.
Biden has been a regular visitor to Afghanistan over the years. As senator, he was the first elected American official to arrive in Kabul after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and was a strong ally of Karzai's.
But in the past couple of years, Biden's relations with Karzai have grown shakier. Biden has been skeptical of Karzai's reliability and his willingness to address the corruption in his government. The two men had a combative dinner in Kabul in February 2008 while Biden was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. And just before Obama's inauguration, Biden delivered the message to Karzai that he would not have the same type of chummy relationship with Obama that he had with President Bush.
But the insurgency remains potent in wide swaths of the country. The Afghan government has strongly opposed parts of the U.S. military strategy and not yet addressed its own problems with corruption. Insurgent leaders, meanwhile, operate safely from sanctuaries inPakistan.
U.S. military officials are waiting until spring, when the Taliban fighting season typically resumes, before drawing firmer conclusions about how much they've disrupted the insurgency and whether the Afghan government has stepped into the gap.
The recent death of Obama's special envoy to the region, Richard C. Holbrooke, removed a diplomatic heavyweight from the scene and raised questions about whether the Obama administration will shift its approach.
Holbrooke's acting successor, Frank Ruggiero, was also in Kabul on Monday following a visit to Pakistan. He came in part to assure officials in both countries that Holbrooke's position of special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan - a new office that has not always fit easily within the State Department
- will remain intact, although Ruggiero is not expected to keep the job in the long term.Biden has been a regular visitor to Afghanistan over the years. As senator, he was the first elected American official to arrive in Kabul after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and was a strong ally of Karzai's.
But in the past couple of years, Biden's relations with Karzai have grown shakier. Biden has been skeptical of Karzai's reliability and his willingness to address the corruption in his government. The two men had a combative dinner in Kabul in February 2008 while Biden was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. And just before Obama's inauguration, Biden delivered the message to Karzai that he would not have the same type of chummy relationship with Obama that he had with President Bush.
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