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Afghan Leader Finds Himself Hero No More
By DEXTER FILKINS The New York Times February 8, 2009
KABUL, Afghanistan — A foretaste of what would be in store for President Hamid Karzai after the election of a new American administration came last February, when Joseph R. Biden Jr., then a senator, sat down to a formal dinner at the palace during a visit here.
US warns of battle worse than Iraq in Afghanistan
by Lorne Cook
MUNICH, Germany (AFP) – The United States warned its allies Sunday that fighting the insurgency in Afghanistan could prove tougher than in Iraq and appealed, along with Britain, for more troops and equipment.
U.S. Officials Offer Dismal Review of War in Afghanistan
National Security Team Says More Troops From NATO Allies Are Necessary
By Craig Whitlock Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, February 8, 2009; 2:29 PM
MUNICH, Feb. 8 -- President Obama's national security team gave a dire assessment Sunday of the war in Afghanistan, with one member calling it a challenge "much tougher than Iraq" and others hinting that it could take years to turn around.
Afghan leader: Need to reconcile with Taliban
AP - Sun Feb 8, 5:15 am EST
MUNICH – Afghan President Hamid Karzai says the only way for Afghanistan to succeed is to reconcile with some members of the Taliban.
US, Britain appeal for more troops in Afghanistan
Sun Feb 8, 7:30 am ET
MUNICH, Germany (AFP) – The United States and Britain urged NATO allies Sunday to provide more troops and equipment to fight insurgents in Afghanistan, with the future of the allied mission there on the line.
2 US soldiers defusing bomb killed in Afghanistan
By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer
KABUL – Two American soldiers died in Afghanistan on Sunday when a roadside bomb they were trying to defuse exploded, a U.S. spokeswoman said. An Afghan interpreter and a policeman also died in the blast.
NATO commander: Afghanistan drug raids imminent
By Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press Writer – Sun Feb 8, 8:50 am ET
MUNICH – In an effort to strike at a key income source for Taliban militants, the top NATO commander said Sunday that operations to attack drug lords and labs in Afghanistan will begin within the "next several days."
Anti-war lawmakers worry over plan for Afghanistan
By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – After campaigning on the promise to end one war, President Barack Obama is preparing to escalate another.
French DM rules out more troops for Afghanistan
Associated Press
PARIS – France's defense minister is ruling out for now increasing the country's military presence in Afghanistan.
U.S. Afghan troops unfazed by Kyrgyz base closure
Sun Feb 8, 2009 9:11am GMT
KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. military operations in Afghanistan will not be affected by the possible closure of a United States' air base in nearby Central Asian country Kyrgyzstan, a U.S. general said on Sunday.
Obama puts brake on Afghan surge
Sarah Baxter and Michael Smith The Sunday Times (UK) February 8, 2009
PRESIDENT Barack Obama has demanded that American defence chiefs review their strategy in Afghanistan before going ahead with a troop surge.
Taleban Hamper Musa Qala Reconstruction Efforts
Insurgents were ousted from the town over a year ago, but they continue to pose a threat.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Aziz Ahmad Tassal and Mohammad Ilyas Dayee (ARR No. 311, 2-Feb-09)
Mullah Abdul Salaam, the district governor of Musa Qala, is an angry man. More than a year after British and Afghan troops retook the district from the Taleban, Musa Qala has received little in the way of the assistance promised directly after the liberation, he insists.
Afghan national drink, tea, good at all hours
By RAFIQ MAQBOOL
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan men shuffle into Abdul Wali's rustic tea shop at dawn's first light.
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Afghan Leader Finds Himself Hero No More
By DEXTER FILKINS The New York Times February 8, 2009
KABUL, Afghanistan — A foretaste of what would be in store for President Hamid Karzai after the election of a new American administration came last February, when Joseph R. Biden Jr., then a senator, sat down to a formal dinner at the palace during a visit here.
Between platters of lamb and rice, Mr. Biden and two other American senators questioned Mr. Karzai about corruption in his government, which, by many estimates, is among the worst in the world. Mr. Karzai assured Mr. Biden and the other senators that there was no corruption at all and that, in any case, it was not his fault.
The senators gaped in astonishment. After 45 minutes, Mr. Biden threw down his napkin and stood up.
“This dinner is over,” Mr. Biden announced, according to one of the people in the room at the time. And the three senators walked out, long before the appointed time.
Today, of course, Mr. Biden is the vice president.
The world has changed for Mr. Karzai, and for Afghanistan, too. A White House favorite — a celebrity in flowing cape and dark gray karakul cap — in each of the seven years that he has led this country since the fall of the Taliban, Mr. Karzai now finds himself not so favored at all. Not by Washington, and not by his own.
In the White House, President Obama said he regarded Mr. Karzai as unreliable and ineffective. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said he presided over a “narco-state.” The Americans making Afghan policy, worried that the war is being lost, are vowing to bypass Mr. Karzai and deal directly with the governors in the countryside.
At home, Mr. Karzai faces a widening insurgency and a population that blames him for the manifest lack of economic progress and the corrupt officials that seem to stand at every doorway of his government. His face, which once adorned the walls of tea shops across the country, is today much less visible.
Now, perhaps crucially, an election looms. Mr. Karzai says he will ask the voters to return him to the palace for another five-year term. The election is set for Aug. 20, after what promises to be a violent and eventful summer. In a poll commissioned by a group of private Afghans, 85 percent of those surveyed said they intended to vote for someone other than Mr. Karzai.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration will have to decide what it wants from Mr. Karzai as it tries to make good on its promise to reverse the course of the war. Or whether it wants him at all.
With the insurgency rising, corruption soaring and opium blooming across the land, it perhaps is not surprising that so many Afghans, and so many in Washington, see President Karzai’s removal as a precondition for reversing the country’s downward surge.
“Under President Karzai, we have gone from a better situation to a good situation to a not-so-bad situation to a bad situation — and now are going to worse,” said Abdullah, a former foreign minister in Mr. Karzai’s government who may now challenge him for the presidency (and who, like many Afghans, has only one name). “That is the trend.
“So let us say Karzai stays in power through the summer and that nothing serious happens and then he wins re-election,” Dr. Abdullah said. “Then there will be two scenarios, and only two scenarios — a rapid collapse or a slow unraveling.”
People close to Mr. Karzai say the man is exhausted, wary of his enemies and worried for his physical safety. He feels embattled and underappreciated, they say, but is utterly determined, in spite of it all, to run again and win. In recent weeks, the growing American dissatisfaction with Mr. Karzai, coupled with a simmering frustration among Afghans over what they regard as the reckless killing of civilians by American forces, has prompted extraordinary reactions from Mr. Karzai.
At a news conference on Tuesday at his marble-floored palace, Mr. Karzai appeared side-by-side with Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general. Mr. Karzai wore his signature hat and cape, but his visage was wan and slack. Asked by an Afghan reporter about his relations with American leaders, Mr. Karzai sprang to life, accusing unnamed people in the American government of trying to “pressure” him to stay silent over the deaths of Afghan civilians in attacks by Americans.
“Our demands are clear — to stop the civilian casualties, the searching of Afghan homes and the arresting Afghans,” Mr. Karzai said of the Americans. “And of course, the Americans pressured us to be quiet and to make us retreat from our demands. But that is impossible. Afghanistan and its president are not going to retreat from their demands.”
Mr. Karzai did not touch on larger frustrations, which Afghan and Western officials here say he harbors, about the overall American effort, namely, the relegation of Afghanistan to second-tier status after the invasion of Iraq. Many Afghans and Western officials here believe that it was the Iraq war, more than any other factor, that deprived Mr. Karzai of the resources he needed to help the Afghan state stand on its own, and to prevent the resurgence of the Taliban that Mr. Obama is now vowing to contain.
Yet for all the doubts about Mr. Karzai — and for all the strains he labors under — he remains by far the strongest politician in the country. He commands the resources of the Afghan state, including the army and the police, and billions of dollars in American and other aid that flows into the treasury.
In his seven years in office, Mr. Karzai has successfully presided over the transition of the Afghan state from the devastated, pre-modern institution it was under the Taliban to the deeply troubled but largely democratic one it is today. Perhaps most important for his future, Mr. Karzai has assembled a team of senior administrators whose competence and experience would be difficult for any challenger to match.
Perhaps for that reason, of the many prominent Afghans who have hinted that they may run against him, including Dr. Abdullah and a former finance minister, Ashraf Ghani, only a handful of Afghans have so far declared their intentions. Some Afghan leaders say they will announce their candidacies soon, but it seems just as likely that they are waiting to see if Mr. Karzai stumbles.
As for the members of Mr. Obama’s team, they may yet discover that Mr. Karzai is the man they will be forced to deal with, whether they like him or not.
At the palace news conference, Mr. Karzai acknowledged his own unpopularity, and then offered a vigorous defense of his record. He declined to be interviewed for this article.
“Well, I have been in government for seven years. It’s natural that I would not be as popular now as I was seven years ago,” Mr. Karzai said.
“The institutions of Afghanistan have worked very well,” he added. “The Afghan people participated in the election for president. They participated in elections for Parliament. The parliamentary system has been functioning a lot better than some established parliaments in the world. They have been making laws, approving laws. The government institutions are increasingly in progress — the economy, the national army, the growth of education. We went from almost two or three universities in 2002 to 17 universities, to the freedom of the press, hundreds of newspapers and radios and all that. I and the Afghan people are proud of our achievements.”
And, he might also have said, six million Afghan children attending school, a quarter of whom are girls, whose education was prohibited by the Taliban.
One of the people with the most generous words for Mr. Karzai is William Wood, the American ambassador. Under the ambassador’s former boss, President Bush, Mr. Karzai enjoyed a favored personal status, even if his state did not. That special relationship was symbolized by the videoconferences in which the two men participated regularly.
“The guy works very hard,” Mr. Wood said of Mr. Karzai. “He faces a problem set every day that would daunt anyone. He’s got an insurgency based outside the country, and a level of poverty and criminality inside the country that feeds the insurgency. He’s got an army that had to be built from zero following the ouster of the Taliban. He’s got a police force that had to be reformed.
Speaking in an interview at his office in Kabul, Mr. Wood added: “Yeah, I think he’s tired. And I think frankly that everyone — the international community, the United States, the United Nations, Western Europe, the international press — were unrealistically optimistic about the problem of Afghanistan following the ouster of the Taliban.”
Mr. Wood will soon be replaced by Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry, a former commander of American forces here.
In his last tour, which ended in 2007, General Eikenberry enjoyed good relations with Mr. Karzai. Given Mr. Karzai’s mood these days, that is probably a good thing.
At a ceremony last month for the first graduates of Afghanistan’s National Military Academy, Mr. Karzai stood and addressed the assembled 84 cadets as well as a group of diplomats, including Mr. Wood. Mr. Karzai turned the occasion into a populist barnburner.
“I told America and the world to give us aircraft — otherwise we will get them from the other place!” Mr. Karzai roared, prompting applause. “I told them to give us the planes soon, that we have no more patience, and that we cannot get along without military aircraft!
“Give us the aircraft sooner or we will get them from the others!” Mr. Karzai roared again. “We told them to bring us tanks, too — otherwise we will get them from other place!”
Mr. Karzai never said what the “other place” was.
Abdul Waheed Wafa contributed reporting from Kabul, and Peter Baker from Washington.
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US warns of battle worse than Iraq in Afghanistan
by Lorne Cook
MUNICH, Germany (AFP) – The United States warned its allies Sunday that fighting the insurgency in Afghanistan could prove tougher than in Iraq and appealed, along with Britain, for more troops and equipment.
US ambassador Richard Holbrooke insisted that a new approach was required to turn the strife-torn country around, involving all of Afghanistan's neighbours and in particular Pakistan.
"It is like no other problem we have confronted, and in my view it's going to be much tougher than Iraq," he said at an international security conference in Germany. "It is going to be a long, difficult struggle."
Holbrooke, who is to embark on a regional tour soon, said that the administration of President Barack Obama was reviewing the best way to tackle the Taliban-led insurgency.
"What is required in my view is new ideas, better coordination within the US government, better coordination with our NATO allies and other concerned countries, and the time to get it right," he said.
Countries bordering Afghanistan must also be drawn in as part of a solution, he said, including Iran but particularly Pakistan, where the Taliban and its backers in Al-Qaeda and criminal gangs have rear bases.
"All the neighbours ... play a direct role and we're going to look for more of a regional approach," he said, noting that "Pakistan's situation is dire."
"It needs international assistance, international sympathy and international support," said Holbrooke, the new envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he will start his tour that will also take in India.
The envoy also railed against would-be donors who have failed to live up to their pledges.
"People got up and pledged things, and nothing happened, and that is the story of Afghanistan," he said. "I have never seen anything remotely resembling the mess we have inherited."
Obama has identified Afghanistan as the main front in the "war on terror" and has pledged to send another 30,000 troops.
There are currently some 70,000 soldiers in Afghanistan including 50,000 under the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
Yet the top US commander for southwest Asia, General David Petraeus, said more troops, but also aircraft, medical evacuation facilities, engineers, logistics and trainers were needed.
"I would be remiss if I did not ask individual countries to examine very closely the forces and other contributions they can provide as ISAF intensifies its efforts in prepartion for the elections in August," he said.
British Defence Secretary John Hutton insisted that combat forces were most desperately needed to capture and hold ground in the hands of the insurgents.
"Combat forces, that is a most precious contribution right now to that campaign," he said. "We kid ourselves if we imagine that other contributions are as important."
He warned that NATO's biggest and most ambitious mission was under threat.
"We face a moment of choice," he said. "Were are fighting, I think, an existential campaign in Afghanistan," he said.
Meanwhile, Afghan President Hamid Karzai called for a process of reconciliation with the Taliban, and urged foreign forces to do more to halt civilian casualties.
"This is the right time for me to call for a process of reconciliation," he said.
"We will invite all those Taliban who are not part of Al-Qaeda, who are not part of terrorist networks, who want to return to their country, who want to live by the constitution of Afghanistan and who want to have peace in their country and live a normal life, to participate, to come back to their country."
Karzai is set to stand again in presidential elections on August 20, but his popularity has waned amid allegations of government corruption and growing opium production, as well as the insurgency.
NATO nations have had mixed reactions to Karzai's past proposals to talk to the insurgents.
"International violent jihadism, I do not believe is and will prove to be susceptible to any rational political accommodation," Hutton said.
Karzai raised eyebrows in November when he said he would protect the fugitive leader of the insurgent Taliban, Mullah Mohammad Omar, in return for peace whether his international partners liked it or not.
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U.S. Officials Offer Dismal Review of War in Afghanistan
National Security Team Says More Troops From NATO Allies Are Necessary
By Craig Whitlock Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, February 8, 2009; 2:29 PM
MUNICH, Feb. 8 -- President Obama's national security team gave a dire assessment Sunday of the war in Afghanistan, with one member calling it a challenge "much tougher than Iraq" and others hinting that it could take years to turn around.
U.S. officials said more troops were urgently needed, both from the United States and its NATO allies, to counter the increasing strength of the Taliban and other warlords opposed to the central government in Kabul. But they also said new approaches were needed to untangle an inefficient and conflicting array of civilian-aid programs that have wasted billions of dollars.
"NATO's future is on the line here," Richard Holbrooke, the State Department's special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, told an international security conference here. "It's going to be a long, difficult struggle. In my view, it's going to be much tougher than Iraq."
Gen. David H. Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command, said the war in Afghanistan "has deteriorated markedly in the past two years" and warned of a "downward spiral of security."
In addition to more combat troops, Petraeus called for "a surge in civilian capacity" to help rebuild villages, train local police forces, tackle corruption in the Afghan government and reduce the country's thriving opium trade. He also suggested that the odds of success were low, given that foreign military powers have historically met with defeat in Afghanistan.
"Afghanistan has been known over the years as the graveyard of empires," he said. "We cannot take that history lightly."
The Obama administration is conducting a high-level strategic review of the war in Afghanistan and says it will unveil the results before NATO holds a 60th anniversary summit in early April.
Petraeus, who also serves as commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, said part of the review will determine whether successes from the so-called "surge" in U.S. troops in that country could be applied to Afghanistan. As in Iraq, he said, a central task in Afghanistan will be to bolster the legitimacy of the central government in Kabul, which has little sway outside the capital. He also said U.S. and NATO forces need to pay more attention to political and cultural factors as they attempt to build alliances with local tribal leaders, an approach that has worked in Iraq.
To do so, he said, military commanders and their units would need to integrate themselves as much as possible in local villages instead of operating from isolated bases, mimicking another tactic tried in Iraq.
"You can't commute to work in the conduct of counterinsurgency operations," he said. Such an approach, he added, "requires, of course, many cups of tea."
Obama administration officials have said they expect to send 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, bringing the total U.S. deployment there to about 66,000.
U.S. allies have a combined 32,000 troops in Afghanistan operating under NATO command. NATO officials have pressed European members of the alliance to send more, but few countries have been willing. Germany, which has 3,500 troops in Afghanistan, the third most of any country, has questioned the need for more combat forces. Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said more attention should be paid to training local forces and reconstruction projects.
"We won't win with military alone," he told the conference. "There will be no development without security. But without development, we won't have security either."
The debate over troops has led to a sharp split within NATO. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, a Dutch diplomat who serves as NATO's secretary general, told the conference on Saturday that European members of the alliance needed to do more of the "heavy lifting" in Afghanistan.
On Sunday, U.S. Gen. John Craddock, the supreme allied commander of forces in Europe, said 5,000 more NATO troops were needed to secure parts of Afghanistan in time for the presidential election there in August. He said members of NATO "expected they would be asked to step up and do more. Now it's a matter of political will."
British Defense Secretary John Hutton openly disagreed with his German counterpart, saying the need for more combat troops was the highest priority in Afghanistan. Reconstruction efforts, he said, would fail if the Taliban remains strong.
"We kid ourselves if we imagine that other contributions right now are of the same value, because they're not," he said. Britain has 8,900 troops in Afghanistan, second only to the United States, and has said it will likely send more.
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Afghan leader: Need to reconcile with Taliban
AP - Sun Feb 8, 5:15 am EST
MUNICH – Afghan President Hamid Karzai says the only way for Afghanistan to succeed is to reconcile with some members of the Taliban.
Karzai says "there is no way we can succeed the way we want to in the right time without some form of reconciliation."
He says that means inviting "all of those Taliban who are not part of al-Qaida, who are not part of terrorist networks" to return to their homes.
During a security conference in Germany on Sunday he called on the international community to "back us fully" in this effort.
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US, Britain appeal for more troops in Afghanistan
Sun Feb 8, 7:30 am ET
MUNICH, Germany (AFP) – The United States and Britain urged NATO allies Sunday to provide more troops and equipment to fight insurgents in Afghanistan, with the future of the allied mission there on the line.
"I would be remiss if I did not ask individual countries to examine very closely the forces and other contributions they can provide as ISAF intensifies its efforts in preparation for the elections in August," said the top US commander for southwest Asia, General David Petraeus.
At a major security conference in Germany, Petraeus read off a list of requests for the NATO-led force in Afghanistan, including troops, but also aircraft, medical evacuation facilities, engineers, logistics and trainers.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is battling to spread the influence of the weak Afghan government across the strife-torn country, and trying to foster reconstruction.
But the Taliban, backed by Al-Qaeda, drug lords and criminal gangs, has been waging an increasingly effective insurgency, notably in the south and the east.
Britain, Canada, the Netherlands and the United States have troops on the frontline of that fight, but other allies insist that reconstruction is as important as combat and refuse to redeploy.
British Defence Secretary John Hutton insisted that combat forces were most desperately needed, as only by capturing and holding ground in the hands of the insurgents could the allies ensure that rebuilding can be done.
"Combat forces, that is a most precious contribution right now to that campaign," he said. "We kid ourselves if we imagine that other contributions are as important, right now."
He said that NATO's mission, its most ambitious ever, could be on the line.
"We face a moment of choice. I am frustrated, I think probably all of us are. We are fighting, I think, an existential campaign in Afghanistan," he said.
"What I want from NATO is more of a war-time mentality to rise to the challenge that we face."
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2 US soldiers defusing bomb killed in Afghanistan
By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer
KABUL – Two American soldiers died in Afghanistan on Sunday when a roadside bomb they were trying to defuse exploded, a U.S. spokeswoman said. An Afghan interpreter and a policeman also died in the blast.
A group of American soldiers and Afghan officials had been traveling through the world's largest opium poppy producing region — the southern province of Helmand — when they discovered the roadside bomb and tried to defuse it, said Kamal Uddin, Helmand's deputy provincial police chief.
Two American soldiers died in the blast, said Capt. Elizabeth Mathias. Uddin said an Afghan translator and a police officer also died.
Helmand is a stronghold of Taliban militants, who control wide swaths of territory in the province. Helmand has long been the domain of British forces in the 40-nation fight against the Taliban, but the U.S. is expected to send thousands of troops there this year to help battle a militant movement that has grown in strength in the last three years.
The top NATO commander said Sunday that operations to attack drug lords and labs in Afghanistan will begin within the next several days in an effort to strike at a key income source for the Taliban.
"Activities and actions will occur soon that will be helpful," Gen. John Craddock told reporters at a security conference in Munich. "We've got to get started."
Late last year, NATO defense ministers authorized troops in Afghanistan to launch the drug attacks, but there had been questions about whether allies would be willing to follow through. Money from Afghanistan's booming illicit drug trade has been blamed for pumping up to $100 million a year into the coffers of resurgent Taliban fighters.
In the capital, Kabul, a U.S. general said Russia's granting of transit rights to non-lethal U.S. military supplies bound for Afghanistan will make it harder for militants to attack the American supply line.
Brig. Gen. James C. McConville, deputy commanding general in charge of support for U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan, said Russia's announcement Saturday "gives us another opportunity" to bring supplies into the country.
"As agreements are made, of course that presents more challenges to those who are trying to stop these supplies that are coming into the country," he told a news conference.
The supply line into Afghanistan has come under increasing threat in the last several months. Some 75 percent of U.S. supplies comes through Pakistan, but militants have stepped up attacks on trucks bringing in food and fuel. The latest attack was on a bridge in Pakistan's mountainous Khyber Pass, temporarily halting traffic.
McConville insisted that the U.S. has not seen any effect on supplies from the attacks.
The Russian decision follows Kyrgyzstan's announcement last week that it will close the Manas air base used by the U.S. military for moving troops and supplies into Afghanistan.
U.S. officials suspect Russia was behind the decision, having long been irritated by the U.S presence in central Asia.
Any new transit routes through Russia are unlikely to make up for the loss of Manas, home to tanker planes that refuel warplanes flying over Afghanistan as well as airlifts and medical evacuation operations.
The Kremlin last year signed a framework deal with NATO for transit of non-lethal cargo for coalition forces in Afghanistan and has allowed some alliance members, including Germany, France and Spain, to move supplies across its territory.
Ground routes through Russia would likely cross into Kazakhstan and then Uzbekistan before entering northern Afghanistan.
In other violence, Afghanistan's intelligence service said Afghan villagers on Sunday executed an attacker who killed a member of Nangarhar's provincial council on Saturday. A spokesman for the National Directorate of Security said the villagers tied the attacker to a tree and shot him.
"We welcome this decision by the people because it shows how the people hate the Taliban and terrorists," spokesman Sayed Ansari said.
In Helmand's capital, Lashkar Gah, an unknown assailant beheaded the top official dealing with refugee affairs inside his house Sunday, said Daud Ahmadi, a police spokesman.
Abdul Samad Mazari was killed after a few men entered his house pretending to have a meeting with him, Ahmadi said. He blamed the "enemies of Afghanistan" for the murder, government shorthand for Taliban fighters.
Southern Afghanistan is the center of the Taliban-led insurgency. The militants have made a comeback in the last three years after their initial defeat following the U.S. invasion in 2001.
___
Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor in Munich contributed to this report.
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NATO commander: Afghanistan drug raids imminent
By Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press Writer – Sun Feb 8, 8:50 am ET
MUNICH – In an effort to strike at a key income source for Taliban militants, the top NATO commander said Sunday that operations to attack drug lords and labs in Afghanistan will begin within the "next several days."
Gen. John Craddock, who also heads the U.S. European Command, also said that the U.S. and its allies are making progress in their efforts to fill the need for more troops, equipment and intelligence gathering in Afghanistan. He, however, would not disclose any specific commitments he got this weekend as world leaders met at a security conference here.
NATO defense ministers, during a meeting last fall in Hungary, authorized troops in Afghanistan to launch the drug attacks, but there had been questions about whether allies would be willing to follow through. Money from Afghanistan's booming illicit drug trade has been blamed for pumping up to $100 million a year into the coffers of resurgent Taliban fighters.
"Activities and actions will occur soon that will be helpful," Craddock told reporters. "We've got to get started."
The U.S. delegation to the security conference, led by Vice President Joe Biden, was expected to talk to allies this weekend about the ongoing need for support in Afghanistan. Craddock said he still needs about 5,000 NATO troops to bolster Afghan forces during the coming elections, and he is confident he will get them from other NATO nations.
At the same time, he said he still has a critical need for trainers that he has yet to fill, and the expected announcement about a forthcoming build-up in U.S. forces has been delayed as the Pentagon juggles the numbers in the face of an ongoing review by the new Obama administration.
Allies, said Craddock, "expected they would be asked to step up and do more. Now it's a matter of political will."
Leaders have speculated that good will surrounding the inauguration of President Barack Obama would generate greater efforts by NATO allies to send additional resources to Afghanistan. Pentagon officials have said they expect to send as many as 30,000 more troops there, including several brigades in the coming months.
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Anti-war lawmakers worry over plan for Afghanistan
By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – After campaigning on the promise to end one war, President Barack Obama is preparing to escalate another.
Obama's dual stance on the two wars is not lost on congressional Democrats, many of whom also ran on anti-war platforms. In coming weeks, they expect to have to consider tens of billions of dollars needed for combat, including a major buildup of troops in Afghanistan.
While increasing the military's focus in Afghanistan was anticipated — it was a cornerstone of Obama's campaign — many Democrats acknowledged in recent interviews that they are skittish about sending more troops, even in small numbers.
The concern, they say, is that the military could become further entrenched in an unwinnable war on their watch.
"Before I support any more troops to Afghanistan, I want to see a strategy that includes an exit plan," said Rep. Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts liberal who at one point wanted to cut off money for the Iraq war.
Added Wisconsin Democrat Sen. Russ Feingold, another fierce war opponent: "The idea of putting the troops in without having more clarity at least gives me pause."
The Obama administration is in the midst of a sweeping strategy review. The results of that assessment might not be released for several weeks. In the meantime, the administration is expected to approve an immediate request from the top military commander in Afghanistan for three more brigades, roughly 14,000 troops.
It is expected that more troops would follow, eventually doubling the presence from 33,000 to 60,000.
The proposed buildup had been under consideration by the Bush administration as a means of dealing with an uptick in violent attacks. More than 130 U.S. personnel died in Afghanistan last year, compared to 82 in 2007, according to a recent Pentagon report.
Vice President Joe Biden sought to lower lawmakers' expectations in the war when he met recently with House Democrats at their party retreat in Williamsburg, Va.
"The economic and security and social conditions there are daunting" and the nation has "geography, demography and history working against us," he said.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said as much in congressional testimony last month, warning against aspiring to turn Afghanistan into a "Central Asian Valhalla," referring to a haven of purity in Norse mythology.
"Nobody in the world has that kind of time, patience or money, to be honest," he told lawmakers.
Indeed, Afghanistan poses a foreign policy challenge unlike no other. The country is one of the poorest in the world. Opium production has given way to Colombia-like drug cartels trafficking heroin. Corruption is rampant. Terrorist fighters move freely across the Pakistan border. European voters want their armies to leave.
And in the latest twist, the U.S. is now scrambling to find an alternative to flying troops and supplies into the landlocked country because of threats by nearby Kyrgyzstan that it plans to shut down the U.S. base there.
"The complexities just mount — and you have to bring yourself back to what I hope we're going to ask, which is 'what is the goal?'" said Rep. John Tierney, in an interview after returning from his third trip to Afghanistan.
"You've got to look at these kids' parents in the face when you go to a funeral and say, 'This is why your kid was killed in action,'" said Tierney, D-Mass., who chairs an investigative subcommittee on national security issues.
David Kilcullen, a counterinsurgency adviser to Condoleezza Rice when she was secretary of state, recently warned senators against widening U.S. involvement in the war.
"If you think about what we did in Vietnam, we escalated, we overthrew that leader, we took control of the problem, we tried to fix it and we couldn't fix it, couldn't afford it," said Kilcullen, a former Australian Army officer, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
"And I just think we need to be extremely careful about signing ourselves up to escalating to the point where we can't pullback. ... Because once you own the problem, you own it," he said.
Obama's biggest supporters in Congress say they believe the new president won't go too far. But they're also counting on the popular president to win over a war-weary public.
"I have to believe he will come well prepared and present a case to us that will justify what he is attempting to do," said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md.
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French DM rules out more troops for Afghanistan
Associated Press
PARIS – France's defense minister is ruling out for now increasing the country's military presence in Afghanistan.
Herve Morin told France-Inter radio Sunday that France has "already made a considerable effort" toward stabilizing the troubled country. He said "there's no question for the moment of sending additional troops."
U.S. President Barack Obama has urged allies to send reinforcements to Afghanistan. The U.S. is expected to deploy up to 30,000 more American troops there this year.
Recent announcements of reductions of the numbers of French troops in countries like Ivory Coast and Chad had fueled speculation that France intended to redeploy those soldiers to Afghanistan. France currently has 3,300 troops in the Afghan theater.
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U.S. Afghan troops unfazed by Kyrgyz base closure
Sun Feb 8, 2009 9:11am GMT
KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. military operations in Afghanistan will not be affected by the possible closure of a United States' air base in nearby Central Asian country Kyrgyzstan, a U.S. general said on Sunday.
Almost 65,000 foreign troops, mostly from the United States and NATO member countries, are deployed in Afghanistan, locked in a violent struggle against resurgent Taliban-led militants.
On Thursday, former Soviet Republic Kyrgyzstan said it would close a U.S. air base on its soil used to ferry supplies and troops into Afghanistan, but Washington says talks with the Kyrgyz government to keep the Manas base open were ongoing.
"We have many ways of bringing people and equipment into this country and we are not dependent on any one way," said Brigadier General James McConville, deputy commander of support for U.S. and NATO-led forces in eastern Afghanistan.
"The places that we use benefit economically from our presence, and so when our presence goes away those people who are dependent on our economic input will probably be hurt."
But McConville's counterpart responsible for security in east Afghanistan, Brigadier General Mark Milley said on Friday there could be some "fallout" from the closure of the Manas base for the U.S. effort in Afghanistan, but would not give details.
Some 30,000 mainly U.S. troops in east Afghanistan are supplied by convoys using a highway which connects the Pakistani city of Peshawar to a U.S. air base in Bagram, north of Kabul.
Plans to deploy an extra 25,000 U.S. troops in the next 12 to 18 months, which would almost double the number of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, would make the need to secure supply routes even more important.
A spate of attacks in the last few months on military supply convoys and depots on this route, and several attacks on the Khyber Pass, have highlighted the need for alternative means of transporting goods to Afghan and foreign forces.
McConville said there were "weeks and months" of supplies left and that "multiple means" including air transport and alternative ground routes were available, including recently-agreed routes from Russia.
"It just gives us another opportunity to access supplies in the country," McConville said, but he declined to say which Central Asian countries the route from Russia would by-pass in order to reach land-locked Afghanistan.
(Reporting by Golnar Motevalli; Editing by Sugita Katyal)
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Obama puts brake on Afghan surge
Sarah Baxter and Michael Smith The Sunday Times (UK) February 8, 2009
PRESIDENT Barack Obama has demanded that American defence chiefs review their strategy in Afghanistan before going ahead with a troop surge.
There is concern among senior Democrats that the military is preparing to send up to 30,000 extra troops without a coherent plan or exit strategy.
The Pentagon was set to announce the deployment of 17,000 extra soldiers and marines last week but Robert Gates, the defence secretary, postponed the decision after questions from Obama.
The president was concerned by a lack of strategy at his first meeting with Gates and the US joint chiefs of staff last month in “the tank”, the secure conference room in the Pentagon. He asked: “What’s the endgame?” and did not receive a convincing answer.
Larry Korb, a defence expert at the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank, said: “Obama is exactly right. Before he agrees to send 30,000 troops, he wants to know what the mission and the endgame is.”
Obama promised an extra 7,000-10,000 troops during the election campaign but the military has inflated its demands. Leading Democrats fear Afghanistan could become Obama’s “Vietnam quagmire”.
If the surge goes ahead the military intend to limit the mission to fighting the Taliban and Al-Qaeda and leave democracy building and reconstruction to Nato allies and civilians from the State Department and other agencies.
The United States has been pushing Britain to send several thousand more troops but there is just as much disagreement and confusion among British defence chiefs over the long-term aim. Gordon Brown is set to receive a full briefing this week.
General Sir Richard Dannatt, the army chief who will step down this summer, has insisted that troops need a rest and believes he can send only one battlegroup, senior defence sources said.
General Sir David Richards, his successor, believes that the two extra battlegroups the Americans have asked for is the minimum the UK should send, the sources said.
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Taleban Hamper Musa Qala Reconstruction Efforts
Insurgents were ousted from the town over a year ago, but they continue to pose a threat.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Aziz Ahmad Tassal and Mohammad Ilyas Dayee (ARR No. 311, 2-Feb-09)
Mullah Abdul Salaam, the district governor of Musa Qala, is an angry man. More than a year after British and Afghan troops retook the district from the Taleban, Musa Qala has received little in the way of the assistance promised directly after the liberation, he insists.
“Both the [Afghan] government and the international community turned out to be liars,” he told IWPR. “They haven’t done anything here. People are suffering from hunger. They have no opportunity to earn money. The government promised to build a large mosque in the centre of the city, but there are no signs of it yet. They promised to build bridges in the Dezour area, but nothing has been done in that regard, either.”
The district governor also insists that the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, ISAF, is not providing sufficient protection. On January 1 this year, his own house was attacked by Taleban insurgents. Mullah Salaam was not present at the time, and was not hurt, but a large number of his guards were killed.
“When my house and my soldiers were surrounded by the Taleban, ISAF did not send any troops to help,” he complained. “The foreigners have not taken any effective measures in term of security. My relations with the foreigners are good because we work together, but they do not protect me.”
Mullah Salaam has the same ambiguous attitude toward the central government.
“My relations with [Afghan president] Hamed Karzai are very good,” he said. “But the president himself cannot do anything. I have problems with Karzai's ministers. They do not listen to the president and they promise to do things but they never do.”
The district governor claims that any improvement in local conditions have been provided by himself.
Musa Qala is a district of northern Helmand province that has acquired iconic status over the past two years. A controversial agreement in October, 2006, saw the withdrawal of British forces from the area, predicated on a Taleban promise to stay out as well. Both sides were restricted from operating within a defined perimeter.
The deal did not hold for long. In February, 2007, the Taleban took the district centre, claiming that foreign troops had broken the agreement by launching air strikes within the exclusion zone. International forces insisted that the strikes, in which the brother of a senior Taleban commander was killed, were outside the mandated area.
The Taleban held Musa Qala for nearly a year, establishing their own severe brand of Sharia law. In December, 2007, British and Afghan troops took back the district, amid lavish promises of assistance.
Mullah Abdul Salaam, a former Taleban commander, was appointed district governor in January, 2008, in what was widely seen at the time as a step towards dialogue with the moderate Taleban.
Things have not worked out quite the way they were planned. The pledged support has reportedly been slow in coming, and the Taleban have proved to be remarkably resilient, hampering reconstruction efforts.
Residents say they are caught between the Taleban, the Afghan government and foreign forces.
“The government and the foreigners call us Taleban, while the Taleban accuse us of being spies for the government,” said a shopkeeper in Musa Qala, who did not give his name.
Many people have fled, heading for the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.
“It is impossible to live in Musa Qala now,” said Anwar, a Musa Qala resident who moved to Lashkar Gah with his family six months ago. “There is fighting between the foreigners and the Taleban. People cannot walk on the street. I had to abandon my home. I left everything.”
Many of those who have stayed are unemployed, and getting desperate.
“At the beginning, the government hired us to clean out the ditches, and paid us 500 afghani (about 10 US dollars) per day,” said Gul Ahmad, a local resident. “But that has stopped. Now we have nothing.”
Hajji Mohammad Naem, who represents Musa Qala in the provincial council, said the public works project had to be abandoned because of security concerns, “We had to stop. The Taleban killed three of the labourers on charges of spying for the British forces and the Afghan government.”
Those engaged in Musa Qala’s reconstruction dispute claims that little has been done. Representatives of the central government and the international community point to new schools, clinics, local government buildings. But even they are forced to admit that the lack of security has meant that some projects have not been implemented.
“The expectations of the Musa Qala governor are very high,” said Abdul Satar Mirzakawal, the deputy governor of Helmand province. “He wants us to build parks and a modern town in Musa Qala. Security problems in the district have kept us from fulfilling some of our promises. But development works have been carried out there. A school and a health clinic have been built.”
A high-ranking authority from a development agency in Helmand also defended the international community’s record in Musa Qala. While the town had a long way to go, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, there had been progress. Completed projects, he said, included a 750-kilovolt generator, desks and furnishings for the school, and small community grants.
“The most important contribution the US government made was [to give] over one million dollars to the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund specifically earmarked for Musa Qala district,” he said. “That funding was specifically to be used by the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development.”
But the MRRD has been slow to keep its promises, according to tribal leaders.
“[MRRD] … promised us lots of assistance, but only two schools have been built, and our children still study in tents. It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” said tribal elder Hajji Zahir.
James Donnelly, British government liaison officer in Musa Qala, was upbeat about progress that had been made.
“We have built the district headquarters, a school, a clinic, and three roads,” he said. “We have other projects in the works as well, including canals and two mosques.”
Too little, too late, complains the district governor.
“[The government and the international community] promised to build three big bridges, 18 schools and to rebuild the congregational mosque in the district,” said Mullah Salaam. “Out of those, they have built only two schools in the district.”
The high-ranking development official acknowledged that the number of schools built fell far short of what was promised, but insisted that it was security, not lack of commitment that had slowed reconstruction.
“We wanted to open more schools but the security situation did not allow it,” he said. “If we had better security we could do more work.”
But it is unclear to what extent the Taleban actually control Musa Qala. While residents complain that they cannot leave their homes, Mullah Salaam said that he has kept the insurgents ten kilometres outside the district, and that they are unable to create problems.
“There are Taleban who do whatever they want, and no one can stop them,” the governor told IWPR. “But since I came to Musa Qala, these problems have been resolved.”
The Taleban tell a different story.
“We are three to five km from the Musa Qala district centre,” said Taleban spokesman Qari Yusuf.
But he rejects accusations that the Taleban are preventing assistance from reaching residents of Musa Qala. All it takes is a little coordination with the Taleban, he insisted.
“If the government delivers the assistance to the residents in consultation with the local Taleban, then there is no problem.” he told IWPR. “If the Afghan government, supported by the entire world community, cannot do reconstruction works in the area, it really shows its weakness to the people.”
But while the various parties trade blame and claim credit, residents feel that development pledges have not been delivered.
“Promises made by the government and the international community have not been fulfilled in Musa Qala,” said provincial council head Anwar Khan. “Residents in Musa Qala have nothing. They do not have access to schools, health clinics etc. People are very disappointed in the government, they do not trust the government and they do not listen to it.”
Aziz Ahmnad Tassal and Mohammad Ilyas Dayee are IWPR journalists in Helmand Province.
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Afghan national drink, tea, good at all hours
By RAFIQ MAQBOOL
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan men shuffle into Abdul Wali's rustic tea shop at dawn's first light.
Two gleaming brass water boilers sit at the back of his shop in Kabul's old city. Silver kettles line the wall. Chatter fills the shop until nightfall as customers debate politics, the poor state of the economy, and the U.S. and NATO fight against the Taliban.
Tea is Afghanistan's unofficial national drink. It is offered to guests within moments of arrival for an official meeting or a social get-together. To not offer a glass is a social affront and is meant to make a point by an unhappy or unwilling host. More typically, silver trays filled with short glasses of tea are brought out to greet friends.
Afghanistan last year imported 30 tons of black tea worth $45 million and 15 tons of green tea worth $12 million, according to Ghulam Mohammad Tahayari, an official at Afghanistan's Commerce Ministry.
Private security guards around Kabul usually have a thermos full of tea nearby. Police at roadside checkpoints hold steaming cups of tea in hand.
In Wali's shop, Afghan men sit cross-legged on an elevated floor. Women rarely enter. A glass of tea costs about 10 U.S. cents. The brass samovars, fired by wood logs, supply the hot water.
Wali is lucky he still has the traditional copper and brass boilers, since most newer tea shops use cheaper tin ones. The old-style samovars are expensive to make and not available today, he says.
Green or black tea is made by throwing loose leaves into a kettle of boiling water. The use of tea bags is rare. Sugar or cardamom is added as desired.
A sprinkling of modern cafes in Kabul's new shopping complexes stand in stark contrast to shops like Wali's. Mainly the domain of the upper class and Afghanistan's youth, more girls and women socialize in these trendy cafes.
But Ali, a waiter who goes by one name, says he's been serving fewer customers recently at the cafe where he works.
"With the recent upsurge of a Taliban presence on the streets of Kabul, customers are again dwindling and women especially are staying away," says Ali.
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