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Beyond daunting setbacks in the U.S. mission this year—including attacks by Afghan soldiers on U.S. troops, the massacre of 17 Afghan civilians by a U.S. soldier, and the burning of Qurans at Bagram by military personnel followed by a controversial public apology from Obama to Karzai—the agreement is a breakthrough in an otherwise frigid relationship between the two heads of state.

NATO countries involved in the fight in Afghanistan already have drawn down troop levels and balked at continuing to contribute to the effort to train Afghan national army and police units.

Beyond daunting setbacks in the U.S. mission this year—including attacks by Afghan soldiers on U.S. troops, the massacre of 17 Afghan civilians by a U.S. soldier, and the burning of Qurans at Bagram by military personnel followed by a controversial public apology from Obama to Karzai—the agreement is a breakthrough in an otherwise frigid relationship between the two heads of state.

President Barack Obama’s dramatic overnight visit to Afghanistan this week will perhaps close a chapter on what has been an increasingly fractured relationship between him and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, in their joint war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

The agreements commits Afghanistan and the United States to “foster close cooperation” on defense and security arrangements.

For war-weary Americans, the dress-down may have seemed appropriate, but in Afghanistan it played to U.S. enemies—by making Karzai look bad, Obama gave encouragement to Taliban sympathizers and deepened friction between the U.S.