Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has been getting quite a bit of bad press the last few years. As The New York Times reports today, he has arranged secret contacts with the Taliban. According to the newspaper, this may be why he has held up a security deal, thus straining his relationship with America. I know next to nothing about Afghanistan, but Karzai’s behavior still strikes me as pretty predictable, as well as eminently rational. Are America and its allies not about to leave the country soon? Is not the date of their departure the only remaining puzzle? Indeed, it is easy to imagine the Afghan president’s predicament. He is about to be left alone amid the Taliban. What else can he do but to start forging some kind of deal of his own with them in the hope of survival, both political and otherwise? It is none of my business, of course, but the bad press he has been getting is starting to annoy even me. On top of everything, it cannot but also help alienate Karzai. Bad press, or what?