Defense secretary Robert M. Gates called it 'extraordinarily embarrassing,' which might also describe the sentiments beneath the decorous tableau Wednesday night in the palace of President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan. A little more than a week after the disclosure of a cache of secret American diplomatic cables that quoted Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, describing Karzai's 'inability to grasp the most rudimentary principles of state-building,' among other criticisms, Karzai, Eikenberry and Gates shared their first public forum together since the cables were leaked. Not that anyone would have known that something was ever amiss. Eikenberry sat genially in the front row of American official spectators, busily taking notes, as Gates stood alongside Karzai, smiling broadly. Asked about the cables obtained by WikiLeaks and made available to a number of news organizations, Gates first acknowledged that they were 'extraordinarily embarrassing for the United States.' Then he tried to limit the damage. 'At the end of the day, nations and leaders make decisions based on their interests,' Gates said. 'And I would say that America's best partners and friends, and I include among them President Karzai, have responded to this in my view in an extraordinarily statesmanlike way.' Gates shifted to a higher gear: 'And I'm deeply grateful and frankly I think the American government will not forget this statesmanlike response. I think I also could say with great confidence, Karzai and I have been meeting together privately now for four years. I don't think either of us would be embarrassed to have a single thing we said to each other made public.' Gates was praising Karzai for his response four days earlier to the disclosures, when in a news conference with the Pakistani prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, he dismissed the cables as beneath his interest. Karzai also said, referring to criticism from his own ministers as reported in the cables, that people might say things casually in private that did not reflect their more considered views. His response was a relief to American officials, who embraced him in 2001 as a promising leader but have been alternately exasperated and infuriated over the ensuing years by what they consider his erratic behavior. As Eikenberry wrote in a July 2009 cable, Karzai had a 'deep-seated insecurity as a leader.' That cable was a forerunner to his assessment in a November 2009 cable that called Karzai 'not a reliable partner' for the United States. The November cable was leaked months before the current trove, souring relations between Eikenberry and Karzai before the WikiLeaks disclosures. Gates was in Afghanistan to make an assessment of the war for a White House review, which is to be completed this month. The conclusion of the report -- that there has been progress since President Barack Obama sent 30,000 additional American forces but more work needs to be done -- has already been described by administration officials. 'As I return to Washington, the United States government will be finishing work on an evaluation of the situation here, and I will go back convinced that our strategy is working,' Gates said at the news conference. There remains deep skepticism about the strategy in parts of official Washington and Afghanistan, even among military officers. Earlier Wednesday, Gates heard largely optimistic reviews in a trip to Helmand and Kandahar provinces, in the south. Maj. Gen. Richard Mills, the commander of 20,000 U.S. Marines in Helmand Province, said that 'the conditions are set in certain parts of the province right now for us to be able to turn over significant responsibility in the realm of security to the Afghans themselves' -- a goal of Obama, who wants to begin the withdrawal of some United States forces next July. At Forward Operating Base Howz-e-Madad in Kandahar Province, where fighting was fierce this summer and fall, Col. Art Kandarian told reporters traveling with Gates that 'four months ago you would not be able to fly in here without taking some fire at this location.' He said his troops were now working to clear insurgents and homemade bombs from Afghanistan's Highway One. 