Karzai; (below) Eikenberry

Herat, June 19: American ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry lashed out at Afghan President Hamid Karzai today in a carefully calculated and candid response to the President’s increasingly inflammatory criticisms against coalition forces in Afghanistan.

“When Americans, who are serving in your country at great cost — in terms of life and treasure — hear themselves compared with occupiers... likened to the brutal enemies of the Afghan people,” the ambassador said, “they are filled with confusion and grow weary of our effort here.”

His comments, made before students at Herat University, were a rare break from the normally tolerant stance western diplomats have taken in the face of Karzai’s anti-coalition rhetoric. And though he never mentioned the Afghan President by name, his comments were a clear warning that Karzai’s statements threatening, among other things, to denounce foreign forces as occupiers served to damage US-Afghan relations at a critical time, as the American President is weighing troop reductions and support for the war is fast eroding both in Congress and around the country.

“When we hear ourselves being called occupiers and worse, our generous aid programs dismissed as totally ineffective and the source of all corruption, our pride is offended and we begin to lose our inspiration to carry on,” Eikenberry said.

While Eikenberry has in recent weeks made similar comments in front of Afghan audiences, he went further today, reflecting a growing concern among western diplomats over Karzai’s increasingly harsh public criticisms.

Karzai has been equally adamant about his concerns in private conversations with Nato officials, but has couched those concerns more diplomatically, western officials said.