U.S., eyeing exit and mindful of past, keeps distance from Afghan election --- (Reuters) - Ahead of Afghanistan's last presidential election in 2009, the United States used its diplomatic and military muscle to try to pull off a successful vote in a nation expected to define the foreign policy of President Barack Obama. -- Fast-forward to today: the Obama administration is taking an arms-length approach to Afghanistan's April 5th elections. U.S. soldiers are no longer taking the lead in safeguarding voters across the central Asian country. U.S. officials have steered clear of appearing to pick sides among rival candidates. -- The about-turn reflects Afghanistan's shrinking role in the foreign policy priorities of the Obama administration, as senior officials turn toward the conflict in Syria, Middle East peace talks, and the crisis in Ukraine. --- "The approach is very different than it was in 2009," said Shamila Chaudhary, a former official who worked on Afghanistan and Pakistan at the White House and State Department earlier in the Obama administration. "This is now a country where we can have a minimalist kind of engagement," Chaudhary added. -- The contrast with 2009 is dramatic. --- Today, U.S. forces are steadily going home. Public opinion polls show American support for the war fading. While a small foreign force may remain after 2014, the White House appears determined to put the long, costly conflict behind it, even though a serious militant threat to Afghan and U.S. interests remains. -- In the leadup to the 2009 vote, Chaudhary said, the Obama administration was divided between officials aligned with special representative Richard Holbrooke at the State Department, who favored a muscular involvement in the vote, and others at the White House who did not support his vision for long-term U.S. engagement. --- As former Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrote in his recent memoir, "It was all ugly: our partner, the president of Afghanistan, was tainted, and our hands were dirty as well." --- "They learned a lot from last time," said Caroline Wadhams, an analyst at the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank seen as close to the Obama administration. -- "They are intentionally taking a back seat and being very cautious, rightly so, in how they are approaching the different players and in focusing on supporting the processes." -- While Rassoul is seen as Karzai's preferred successor, all leading candidates have indicated they would sign a U.S.-Afghan deal allowing a small residual force to stay beyond this year, training Afghan soldiers and conducting raids against al Qaeda. - More, Missy Ryan, http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/02/us-usa-afghanistan-elections-analysis-idUSBREA3128N20140402