Clinton Downplays Karzai Comments
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 4:14PMBy Lisa Kellman
During an appearance Thursday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attempted to downplay Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s claim that his country would side with Pakistan if the neighboring nation was threatened by the U.S.
Amidst uproar from many congress members, Clinton assured that America and Afghanistan were on good terms.
President Karzai and I had a very productive meeting when I was in Kabul last week” said Clinton, “We are making progress on a lot of issues and we are coordinating closely on both fighting the insurgents and trying to test out this Afghan-lead reconciliation.”
After Clinton heard Karzai’s comment, she sent Ryan Crocker, the US ambassador to Afghanistan, to uncover the truth behind the statement. Karzai, he reported, was talking about the long history of cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“It was not at all about a war that anyone was predicting and it was both taken out of context and misunderstood,” said Clinton.
Clinton informed the committee that during her recent visit to the middle east, she explained to Pakistan and Afghanistan the need to fight terrorists like the Haqqani Network and build capacity and opportunity for lasting stability and security.
Committee members, however, continued to voice concerns over America’s future relations with those in the region.
“Its hard to be optimistic” conceded Committee Chairman Ros-Lehtinen. “All the options on the table appear deeply unappetizing. All run the risk of being ineffectual, counterproductive, or both.”
“It was not at all about a war that anyone was predicting and it was both taken out of context and misunderstood,” said Clinton.
Clinton informed the committee that during her recent visit to the middle east, she explained to Pakistan and Afghanistan the need to fight terrorists like the Haqqani Network and build capacity and opportunity for lasting stability and security.
Committee members, however, raised concerns over America’s future relations with those in the region.
“Its hard to be optimistic” conceded Committee Chairman Ros-Lehtinen on the future of Americas relations with the middle east. “All the options on the table appear deeply unappetizing. All run the risk of being ineffectual, counterproductive, or both.”
Bridging The Cultural Divide To Fight Terrorists
General David Petraeus
Photo By Michael Ruhl
General Petraeus, Commander of U.S. Central Command, discussed U.S. military strategy in the Middle East and South Asia while testifying today before Congress.
“While additional military forces clearly are necessary (in Afghanistan), they will not by themselves be sufficient to achieve our objective,” said the General. America’s objective, he said, is to make sure extremists do not have a haven from which to plan and execute another attack on the level of the 9-11 attacks.
A smarter military can better understand the necessary social infrastructure to facilitate lasting peace within a region. This combined with intelligent military action, international cooperation, the building of infrastructure and a swath of other initiatives will help America secure the region, according to Petraeus. “You cannot kill or capture your way out of an industrial strength insurgency,” the General said.
"We also need to expand just the basic knowledge of Afghanistan among our forces," Petraeus said. He continued that greater knowledge will lead to a "nuanced and granular understanding" that will enable the Army to undertake the kind of sophisticated reconciliation processes in Afghanistan that were important in Iraq.
Congressman Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) agreed that soldiers should be educated, and brought attention to the U.S. Army’s Homestead Program. Dicks said this program involves an Officer taking a year off from active service to live in a country, learn the language, and understand the culture. Retired Army General John Abizaid did a program similar to this. Abizaid was former Commander of U.S. Central Command.
The U.S. Army could not be reached for comment on the current funding of the program, but Dicks expressed concern on the small number of individuals enrolled in it.
The necessary approach to success involves placing security in the hands of the Afghans, Petraeus said, which means helping them collectively realize that the biggest security threat in the region comes from dissident extremist elements within the country, most notably Al-Qaeda. He emphasized that America’s presence in Afghanistan is not permanent, and that Afghanistan’s government and economy must be encouraged by its citizens.