Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai has recently referred to the U.S. military as “occupiers” in his country and even suggested he could envision joining the Taliban. The White House has said the remarks are “genuinely troubling”. I asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates if such comments made his blood boil, but he said it’s the U.S. that needs to be “sensitive” in its comments about Karzai. In my “This Week” interview, Gates said the U.S. military has a “very positive relationship” with Karzai. The Defense Secretary added, “The Afghans are very concerned about their sovereignty.”

Gates suggested Karzai’s comments need to be looked at in a political context. “This is a man who’s first of all a political leader. He has domestic audiences as well as foreign audiences,” Gates told me. “I think we frankly have to be sensitive in our own comments about President Karzai in terms of being mindful that he is the embodiment of sovereignty for Afghanistan also in the way we treat him,” Gates said.