By rushing to give its approval to the result, which was challenged almost at once by the opposition, the main international observer group showed disturbing haste in coming to a convenient judgment.
Despite the West's seal of approval for the election result, support for Mr Karzai in the long term is ambivalent and conditional on his doing a better job of running a clean and competent government.
So the very people who support this idea want to include a provision in the payroll tax cut that would result in the State Department not approving -- or not recommending the approval of the Keystone project.