For his critics, President Hamid Karzai's inaugural speech yesterday struck all the right notes -- sober pledges to get tough on corruption and strengthen his own security forces so that foreign troops can start going home. The question now is whether he has the will and the ability to deliver.
As he embarks on his second five-year term, Karzai faces a virulent Taliban insurgency and crippling corruption that has sown resentment among Afghans toward his administration -- and toward the Western powers that have supported it.
The West, too, has become resentful, with questions increasingly raised back home as to why the 103,000 U.S. and other NATO-led troops in Afghanistan are being asked to die for a corrupt and inefficient government. Such concerns are central to the debate inside the Obama administration, which is considering military proposals to send 10,000 to 40,000 additional troops to Afghanistan next year.
A subdued Karzai, in his traditional green-striped robe, stayed close to his written text -- a departure from his usually relaxed and extemporaneous style. There was none of the excitement and anticipation of his first inauguration in 2004, when hopes were high that Afghanistan had finally turned a corner.
Hundreds of Afghanistan's political and social elite attended the ceremony. Dignitaries from across the world listened intently for the promises of crucial reforms. And Karzai delivered -- at least in words.
"We have to learn from the mistakes and shortcomings of the past eight years," he said. "It is through this self-evaluation that we can better respond to the aspirations and expectations of our people."
Western criticisms had been unusually harsh -- and public -- leading up to his inauguration, particularly after an election so marred by fraud that it took nearly three months to produce a result. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who dined with Karzai on the eve of the ceremony, had warned that U.S. military and financial support would dry up without reforms.
Speaking after the ceremony, Clinton praised Karzai's plans to fight corruption -- but also said that attention would now turn to his actions.
"He could have been very vague and talked about how we're all against it and all want to end it but he was much more specific," she said. "And we're going to, along with the people of Afghanistan, watch very carefully to see how that's implemented."
As part of efforts to combat graft, Karzai said that a law would be adopted under which senior government officials, including deputy ministers and governors, would have to register their assets. Until now, only ministers and higher-ranking officials were required to do so. He also said that any government employees connected to the cultivation and trafficking of drugs would be dismissed and prosecuted.
While Karzai still desperately needs the foreign troops to battle the Taliban, he insisted that within five years, it would be Afghanistan's own army and police who would be in charge, with international forces providing only support and training.
Even as the ceremony took place in Kabul, a suicide bomber killed two U.S. service members in the southern province of Zabul, local officials and NATO said. Hours later, another suicide bomber blew himself up in a busy marketplace in another province, killing 10 civilians, including three boys, and wounding 13 others.
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