President Obama and President Karzai of Afghanistan met today and held a joint press conference to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.

President Obama led the comments by walking back some of the tensions that had built up over the last few months stemming from comments made by President Karzai intimating that he would join the Taliban.  In response to that, there had been open talk of President Obama cancelling Karzai's current trip to Washington.  However, today the focus was on the positive aspects of the partnership between President Karzai's government in Afghanistan, NATO allies, and the United States.

President Obama emphasized his three D's strategy against the Taliban and al'Queda, disrupt, dismantle, and defeat, as well as the strengthened partnership between the U.S. and Karzai.  He applauded the push to fight corruption in the Afghan government, although there is a suspicion that they finally came to the realization that they had no choice but to work with the Karzai government, regardless of how corrupt it was and still is.

The hope for the administration is that the ongoing surge, both militarily and diplomatically, will yield positive results by the 2011 draw down deadline, enough to make it politically safe to either extend military operations past that date, or a sustained civilian rebuilding effort for the foreseeable future.

The goal?

A stable Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In any event, watch the comments and the questions and answer below: