US-Afghan pact at impasse?

[unhappycamper]

http://blogs.rediff.com/mkbhadrakumar/2013/11/19/us-afghan-pact-at-impasse/

US-Afghan pact at impasse?

Every cloud has a silver lining. When it seemed that the US-Afghan pact is all but wrapped up on Washington’s terms and nothing can now stop its signing before the end of the year — the Obama administration has even begun briefing lawmakers on Capitol Hill regarding the provisions of the pact — a glitch seems to pop up from nowhere.

The BBC has flagged, here, that the deal is “at impasse” ahead of the Loya Jirga meeting in Kabul next week because of disagreement over a key provision concerning the prerogative of the US forces’ operational freedom to enter Afghan homes.
Kabul apparently feels “very strongly about this,” while the American side wants to continue the practice of entering Afghan properties. The quarrel may seem a storm in a tea cup but it isn’t really, since the Afghan opinion strongly militates against the manner in which foreigners invaded the privacy of their homes.

Yet, this could also be a clever PR ploy by President Hamid Karzai after having caved in to meet the American demands on the key provisions of the pact. Karzai is brilliant in grandstanding and he probably hopes to present himself as an honest broker in front of the 3000 tribal leaders who assemble for the jirga in Kabul.

He’s reason to be nervous that he is ramming down the throat of the Afghan nation a deal that formalises the open-ended foreign occupation of his country — and, there are already bad omens. Having said that, it is tempting to hope that the BBC report is for real and the US-Afghan difference would prove a deal-breaker.