OUR FOREIGN POLICY MESS – AT 10:21 A.M. ET:  We are leaving Afghanistan this year.  And the Afghans are taking note.  From Fox: 

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, already at odds with the U.S. over a vital security pact, snubbed western leaders once again by joining the likes of Syria and Venezuela in backing Russia's annexation of Crimea.

Karzai's office released a statement over the weekend saying Afghanistan "respects the free will of the people of Crimea to decide about their own future."

The statement said "we respect the decision the people of Crimea took through a recent referendum that considers Crimea as part of the Russian Federation."

Karzai weighed in on the Ukraine crisis shortly before President Obama flew overseas for meetings with European partners. The Obama administration and European allies have described the Crimea referendum, and Russia's decision to annex the peninsula, as "illegitimate."

Karzai, never much of an ally, knows which way the wind is blowing.

The Afghanistan statement, though, was yet another indication of how far the Karzai administration has drifted away from the U.S. as the Afghanistan war -- or the United States' involvement in it -- draws to a close, despite Washington's past support for his presidency. Karzai, in backing Moscow, was also aligning with actors who, under the Soviet Union, prosecuted a prior decade-long war in his country. The U.S. backed Afghan groups fighting against the Soviet-led forces in that war.

Karzai may now be seeking to court Russia, for its aid and general support, as American forces withdraw from the country.

Karzai, though, so far has refused to sign a security agreement that would provide for a residual force of U.S. troops to stay behind after the final withdrawal.

COMMENT:  Obama cannot point to a single foreign policy success, in mainstream American terms.  But in his terms, he is fabulously successful.

March 25, 2014