Much brouhaha over an interview with Afghanistan's Karzai in Sunday's Washington Post in which he called for a reduction in American military activities in A-stan that would essentially gut the Petraeus strategy, such as it is, of running down "extremists," often by night, and winning hearts and minds, presumably, of non-extremists, the rest of the time.

What's going on here seems clear, as this 'graph from the follow-up story in today's Post illustrates:

In addition to ending night raids, Karzai said that he wants U.S. troops to be less intrusive in the lives of Afghans, and that they should strive to stay in their bases and conduct just the "necessary activities" along the Pakistan border.

What Karzai seems to be after is an American presence more or less limited to bases, and more or less dedicated to tamping down threats to the regime. Kind of like the arrangement Maliki has going for him in Iraq.

In other words, Karzai wants a rent-a-cop, too.

Come home, America. I can think of some even more "necessary activities" along the Mexican border and elsewhere for US troops -- if, that is, it's US national security interests that the US military has in mind.