U.S. raises hackles with Karzai, looks for change

By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Like a shaky marriage after seven years, Washington's love affair with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai is on the rocks.

Once a darling of the Bush administration, Karzai is out of favor with the Obama team who have not called publicly for his ouster but view him as a problem rather than a solution.

President Barack Obama, in his first White House news conference this week, described Karzai's government as "very detached" from its people. Obama wants a "more-for-more" strategy -- the more Washington gives, the more it wants back.

"There is a level of frustration in the international community with Afghanistan's inability to spread governance outward more rapidly and efficiently end the corruption," said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

After swiftly dispatching the Taliban government, Western forces are now struggling against insurgent attacks that rose by a third last year in Afghanistan and a campaign of suicide bombing that has heightened insecurity.

Just as happened during the peak of Iraqi violence in 2006 and 2007 when the Bush administration criticized Iraqi political leaders, so the Obama administration is turning on Karzai, who faces re-election in August.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has had harsh words for Karzai's leadership, labeling Afghanistan a "narco state" in her confirmation hearings in January.

For his part, Karzai has become more critical of the West, particularly of U.S. and NATO forces for causing civilian casualties. He says there has been progress under his leadership and calls tensions with the new administration "soft wrestling."