Why the remarkable meetings with the two Afghani leaders show an unsung Obama administration win

The President and the CEO of Afghanistan came to the US for two days of meetings at Camp David on their future, meeting with scores of American leaders including President Obama.

This is a good point to look back on where we were this time last year. At that point, it looked like Afghanistan had failed to have a fair election that could lead to a peaceful transfer of power. Before that, Kharzi,first refused to negotiate a SOFA, then after being persuaded to agree to more acceptable terms (by Kerry), he argued they had to be agreed to by the Loya Jurga - which then agreed - then he refused to sign saying it should be done by the next President.

Then the election was held and the results disputed, with both sides accusing the other of cheating. Secretary Kerry made a surprise trip there almost exactly a year ago - leaving China, where we later learned that he played a part in the China pact on climate change - that he had persuaded Obama to pursue. It was then that the first reports came out of an agreement - a total recount, followed by a unity government. The WP called it unlikely -- and then as various hiccups happened, called it - Kerry's plan and a failure. At that point, the administration spoke of it as giving Afghanistan a chance to succeed -- just a chance.

While Afghanistan is still a very troubled place - and one consequence of the government being at least promising - is that Obama is slowing down the withdrawals at their request to give them more space and time to pull the country together. (This announcement was given more DU coverage than the fact that the unity government - though not without some problems - does seem to be working.

With that background - ignoring all the well covered Camp David events - here is a State Department link to speeches made at a State Department dinner at the conclusion of the two days of meetings. It is very worth reading to understand the role diplomacy played in getting Afghanistan to this point and to hear the two leaders - recently bitter rivals representing different people in Afghanistan - speaking of their current relationship.

http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2015/03/239752.htm

The intent of this post is to show what may be the first baby steps taken to pull Afghanistan out of its several decades of fighting and repression. It could be that any optimism is misplaced and a year from now Afghanistan will be as much a hell hole as it was any time in the last decade (or 3), or it could be the very beginning to a much better life for these people.

This leads me to one observation - where the impact of starting a war is immediate even as all the final consequences are are not known; the impact of diplomacy is far more subtle and just the start of change. Here what the Obama administration did was to help Afghanistan find a path that can lead to a stable government.

One thing I like best here is that the Obama administration has spoken of this as the victory of two Afghans who put country ahead of partisanship. They have made the heroes of that agreement the two leaders -- I suspect giving both even more reason to make the arrangement work. After all, isn't that the way a leader should like the world to see him?