Afghan Ambassador Calls for More U.S. Troops
by addiestan, The Media Consortium: Fri., Jul 18, 2008
Filed under: War Making and Oversight
From the stage of a synagogue, Afghanistan’s ambassador to the United States last night called on the U.S. to supply more forces and a greater commitment to his nation, which has recently seen an abrupt by members of the Taliban movement. At a an event taking place at the 6th & I Synagogue, an historic Washington, D.C., venue, Ambassador Said T. Jawad and his wife, Shamim, answered questions from Steve Coll, author of the Pulitzer prize-winning book, Ghost Wars, which chronicles the CIA’s involvement in the Afghan civil war. Coll currently leads the New America Foundation.
“The NATO troops are not fighting as hard as they should,” said Jawad, who also bemoaned the current capacity of U.S. and international forces.
Though Jawad’s assessment of the situation in Afghanistan almost certainly stems from his first-hand experience of events in his country, his call for a greater U.S. commitment comes just days before Sen. Barack Obama, in the heat of the presidential campaign, is expected to arrive in Afghanistan on a Senate fact-finding mission. Obama contend that the war in Iraq diverted U.S. attention from where he believes it is most needed: Afghanistan.
Yesterday CNN reported, “Since May, the deaths of U.S. and allied troops have far outpaced the toll in Iraq. On Thursday, the toll in Afghanistan was 21, compared with six in Iraq.”
Asked by Coll if a larger footprint by U.S. troops would serve to breed resentment among the Afghan people, Jawad emphatically said no. “The real intruders in Afghanistan are the Taliban,” he said. “We are very pragmatic… the U.S. presence in Afghanistan is the most important hope. The concern in Afghanistan is not how long [is the U.S.] going to be here; it’s that [the U.S.] will leave before institutions are in place.”
Of those institutions, Jawad expressed particular concern about the police force, whose ineffectiveness ultimately serves to undermine the government in the eyes of the Afghan people. “They are not sure of our ability to protect them,” he said.
While the Taliban has become most famous in the U.S. for its activities in Southern Afghanistan, the of Pakistan is Taliban country, as well, with the fabled silk-road city of Peshawar currently in the throes of a power struggle between the Taliban and Pakistani government forces. Yet the peril of extremism in Pakistan finds only tangential expression in the U.S. presidential contest.
On both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border, the dominant ethnic group is Pashtun, a people who don’t necessarily accept the line drawn on a map by an Englishman 50 years ago that divides tribal lands between the two countries. I asked Jawad why that area has lent itself to the Taliban and their sympathizers. It’s not that there’s a native Pashtun affinity with the Taliban, Jawad said; it’s that the extremists acquired resources that enabled them to elbow out traditional elders. “The true tribal leaders have been pushed aside,” he said.
In Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province, of which Peshawar is the capital, the Army and the intelligence agencies, said Jawad, actively aid insurgents, who often cross the border to contact attacks inside Afghan territory. When an audience member questioned the rationale of the generals and the spymasters, Jawad suggested that they are still looking to India as their greatest threat, and see the extremists as their forward line in any potential subcontinental conflict. “Most of the intelligence agencies lack wisdom,” he said.
The event, “A Conversation with Mr. & Mrs. Jawad,” was designed to highlight an exhibit of Afghan treasures, rescued from the Taliban by Afghan curators and government workers, that is currently traveling the U.S. Questions to Mrs. Jawad addressed cultural matters and the situation of women and children in Afghanistan.
RSS Feed