Since the start of second round of presidency, Mr. President Hamid Karzai's relation with the White House has not moved on a track without speed breakers. Initially, he was blamed for systematic electoral fraud in order to win over his close competitor, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah. The criticisms, particularly, by foreign press was that large and intensive that made Mr. President think that his allies were indeed unhappy with second round of his presidency.
Thereafter, efforts were made to restore the relation but no important changes were made and suspicions continued dominating Kabul-Washington relation. Mr. Hamid Karzai has never hesitated to voice out harsh criticisms of foreign allies over wide range of issues and some times inflexibly stood to push for his demands. He asked for complete stoppage or suspension of house-search and night time air strikes. He has claimed that night time air strikes were the main reason behind Afghan civilian loss.
Noteworthy to say, house-search to hunt Al-Qaeda and Taliban elements has been one of the contentious issues from the very start of foreign military engagement in 2001. Afghan people are sensitive against their house search. Several times they publically complained that foreign forces were entering their houses without permission in search of insurgents, which some Afghan analysts maintain would further stoke anti-foreign sentiments.
The case was similar with night time raids.
Many times night raids led into civilian casualties due to false and inaccurate information received from the sources. It is true that, perhaps, if compared to other types of attacks, night time air strikes can be ranked high in terms of civilians' loss.
On the other hand, night time air strikes have been very effective in hunting Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders. Several key figures were killed in past few years.
Therefore, the effectiveness and inexpensiveness of the strikes has been the main reason behind that foreign countries tried to continue them though with severe opposition by President Karzai. President Karzai frequently has asked foreign forces to stop house searches and suspend all night raids, particularly, air strikes. He even once said that without suspension of night drone attacks, the long-term strategic cooperation contract would not be signed.
Perhaps, with the agreement between US made on Sunday one of the most contentious issues may be resolved. The agreement gives Afghan security forces authority over raids of Afghan homes and it is likely that the agreement paves the way for signing the long term strategic cooperation contract.