* Karzai to get red-carpet treatment
* Obama's war strategy at stake
By Matt Spetalnick
Karzai's red-carpet treatment will seal the Obama administration's abandonment of a publicly tough approach to the Afghan leader, widely believed to have backfired and made Karzai more resistant to U.S. pressure.
GETTY IMAGES 13 HOURS AGO
WASHINGTON - MAY 11: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (R) and Afghan President Hamid Karzai (L) speak to the media prior to a bilateral meeting at the State Department May 11, 2010 in Washington, DC. Karzai was in Washington for talks with U.S. officials regarding relations between the two countries. He will meet with President Barack Obama at the White House on Wednesday.
Talks with Obama, the centerpiece of Karzai's four-day visit, follow meetings with other top U.S. officials to patch over differences at a pivotal time in the nearly nine-year-old war in Afghanistan.
Washington criticized Karzai openly in recent months for tolerating government corruption and the Afghan leader lashed back with a series of anti-Western diatribes.
While U.S. concerns about corruption have not vanished, Obama's administration is now making a concerted effort to handle such matters in private and treat Karzai with more respect in public. Washington is mindful that alienating Karzai would risk the support they need from Afghans to make the U.S. war strategy work.
Karzai's visit comes as the U.S. military gears up to complete a troop buildup in Afghanistan in a bid to beat back a resurgent Taliban, stabilize the country and then fulfill Obama's pledge to start bringing troops home in July 2011.
Seeking to ease Karzai's worries about the withdrawal timetable, Obama will reinforce his aides' promise of a long-term U.S. commitment to Afghanistan.
"As we look toward a responsible, orderly transition in the international combat mission in Afghanistan, we will not abandon the Afghan people," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Karzai on Tuesday.
But many Afghans are bound to be skeptical, recalling how the United States turned its back on them following the Soviet pullout from Afghanistan in 1989.
U.S. WARY OF TALIBAN RECONCILIATION
Obama, meanwhile, will be looking for reassurance from Karzai that an emerging effort toward reconciliation with the Taliban will be done in consultation with Washington to avoid compromising the war effort.
The U.S. administration remains wary of overtures to the former Taliban rulers, who were toppled in a U.S.-led invasion after harboring the al Qaeda leadership responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.
As he seeks to rebuild trust with Karzai, Obama's challenge will be to forge a closer personal relationship. He broke with the chummier style of his predecessor, George W. Bush, and opted for an arms-length approach.
The contrast was on full display last May when Karzai had to share the White House spotlight with his Pakistani counterpart, Asif Ali Zardari, and again in March when Obama paid a brief, subdued visit to Kabul to lecture Karzai on corruption.
Karzai's second visit to the Obama White House is expected to be a markedly different story.
Obama will host Karzai for much of the day, including a joint news conference at the White House, an honor reserved for the most trusted U.S. allies.
While there will be public handshakes and smiles, Obama's aides said he would make clear to Karzai behind closed doors that more needs to be done to tackle corruption. Anticipating the pressure, Karzai said on Tuesday his government would do its part to "build its institutions."
Karzai's recent outbursts were seen as calculated in part to show the Afghan public he is no U.S. puppet. He is expected to press Obama on civilian casualties which have undermined public trust in foreign forces in Afghanistan.
Obama will also be playing to a domestic audience, a public weary of what was supposed to be a "good war" compared to the more unpopular conflict in Iraq.
The Democratic president wants to keep Afghanistan from becoming another drag on his party in pivotal congressional elections in November. Voter anxiety over high unemployment and a fragile economy is already expected to take a toll. (Additional reporting by Sue Pleming and Arshad Mohammed in Washington; editing by Chris Wilson)
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