Afghan Election Could Reset US-Kabul Relations --- WASHINGTON (AP) — Afghanistan's presidential election on Saturday gives the U.S. a new chance to fix relations with Kabul, which are in deep discord after more than 12 years of war and repeated fallings-out between the White House and Afghan President Hamid Karzai. -- While many Americans have given up hope that Afghanistan can ever prosper in peace, tens of thousands of Afghans, hoping for change, are flocking to campaign rallies across their impoverished country, which continues to face a stubborn insurgency. -- By all accounts, there will be fraud and violence — no one knows how much to expect. But if the election is seen as credible and legitimate in the eyes of the Afghan people, it will signal a chance for the United States to reset U.S. relations with a country where at least 2,176 members of the U.S. military have died and billions of tax dollars have been spent. -- "It will be the start of a new chapter in our relationship — one where I hope we can get beyond focusing so much on one personality and the challenging aspects of that personality to a relationship that really is based on a number of profoundly shared strategic interests," said Michele Flournoy, undersecretary of defense for policy between 2009 and 2012. But corruption is a major U.S. concern. -- Karzai was brought to power in the wake of the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. In recent years, he has lashed out at the United States, saying it has not brought peace to his country, only never-ending violence that has left tens of thousands of Afghan citizens dead. --- "The United States is ready to work with the next president," Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday, without mentioning the thorny relations with Karzai. -- "The United States has proudly supported Afghanistan's electoral and security institutions. But make no mistake: This is Afghanistan's moment. These elections have been Afghan-owned from the start. ... The Afghan people are staffing and leading the electoral institutions." --- A stable and acceptable political transition is "critical to sustaining international support for Afghanistan," White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday. -- Millions of dollars of U.S. aid, which a war-weary Congress must approve, is at stake in the election and will be a key element of U.S. Afghan policy going forward. If the U.S. wants to honor its pledge to continue assisting Afghanistan, the president will have to convince lawmakers, who regularly point out endemic corruption in Afghanistan and complain about U.S. taxpayer money that has been stolen or gone missing. - More, The Associated Press, NPR, at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=298777299&ft=1&f=