A little over four months left in Karzai's rule, he tries to show metal. All along until recently Karzai was a tame team player. President Bush liked him a lot. President Obama liked him cautiously with some reservations. So did Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. But with John Kerry and most recently with Susan Rice, President Obama's National Security Adviser he started to play games. As if he said:" Yes, but." And then he expounded on this but by introducing new rules to the games he had played so far.

As if all the trouble in convening of the Advisory Loya Jirga was for nothing and as if the Jirga's resolution amounted to nothing, he started, in his own words, to continue to bargain on the Bilateral Security Agreement with Americans. Again, as if it were not too late for bargaining anew, he decided at this late stage to delay signing of the agreement already passed by what he called the representatives of the nation in the great national assembly he called Consultative Loya Jirga. But why does he do that?

It would seem that he was afraid of the consequences of the implementation of the agreement. He thinks and perhaps he may have a point that continuation of a state whereby a country is ruled by two military forces, national and foreign and where the so-called guest forces enter private homes mostly in provinces without any coordination with the national administration, carry out searches, many a time without warrants, and at times kill civilians. (This column has consistently for the past decade advised talks on coordination of military action between these forces and the government, but due to probably diplomatic incapacity on both sides this has never seriously been considered.) It would have taken seasoned diplomats in the persons of the foreign ministers and ambassadors of Afghanistan to work a mechanism for coordination. On the other hand, the military brass of the United States and its ambassadors in Kabul, also have failed to give this important aspect of military campaigns a realistic thought.

Another issue that probably has affected Karzai's abstaining from signing the accord is the question of security talks with Taliban. Apparently he would want the United States to give credence and a jump start to the so-called peace talks with Taliban. Perhaps it is here that Karzai is grossly biased. He was given to believe mostly by the British that such talks would be helpful. He then got carried out with the idea of the Taliban that, he calls his brothers, to realize that continuation of violence would not benefit their cause and nor would it help Afghanistan in any way. Furthermore, the so-called Taliban leaders speaking mostly Kandahari Pushto, like Karzai, he thought would listen to him. However, he has consistently ignored the fact, that Taliban, before being Pashtuns, are extremist Muslims. They believe in the government of the religion over a society of religious people following the Islamic jurisprudence and the interpretation of Islam on the basis of the extremists' regulations. The Taliban believe in a universal Islamic constitution namely the Holy Koran. To them the holy book has laid out all the pertinent rules needed by the society and there is no need besides Sharia law to legislate for other civil laws. Afghanistan's Constitution based on democratic principles, they believe, is a creation of the West. And finally, talks might have some merit when they are held with the people who are willing to talk. The Taliban leadership, even now including its second in command, Mullah Beraddar, has never expressed a clear willingness to do so. Furthermore, the Taliban have no address. So actually any idea of talks with them would be like talking to one's own shadow. And what would be the benefit of that.

Some commentators have suggested power sharing with Taliban as a solution. How could that be done is a mind boggling exercise. Would for example a Talib minister, agree to sit next to a lady minister of women's affairs and discuss agreeing to giving women certain rights in the community.

So whichever way you look at it, Karzai's stand regarding hesitancy to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement is a lame decision. And now that the United States has warned that if this does not happen, it would, together with other allied forces, pull out all of their troops from Afghanistan would create a situation that would put the blame on Karzai and no one else. This is because the Afghan security forces that are paid and are equipped by the United States would not be paid and would be short in equipment. Thus they would not be able to defend the country first and foremost against Taliban and secondly and most importantly against the nefarious schemes of Afghanistan's neighbors on the east and west who would like nothing better than an opportunity to see Afghanistan sequestered and in turmoil. 11/28/13