Recent attempts to work out a security agreement between the U.S. and Afghanistan have hit some snags. Recall that the joint security pact has been evolving through negotiations since 2013 and sets a framework for the presence of American troops and their continued role in conjunction with Afghan security forces. The country’s Loya Jirga has accepted the agreement and wants it to be put in place immediately, but President Hamid Karzai has no intention of signing the agreement, claiming he believes it should be the authority of the next president to make the decision on whether to keep 15,000 soldiers in the country until 2024. He also wants a complete prohibition on American troops from entering homes under any circumstance – a constraint the U.S. rejects.

Elections aren’t until April, and the Taliban is certainly not going to wait for an agreement. Karzai seems to be concerned only with embarrassing the Obama administration, but if a security pact is not reached, U.S. forces will pull out next year – a procedure that would have dangerous ramifications. We saw what happened in Iraq after America’s military presence evaporated. Karzai himself might not even survive if such a thing happens in his country.