Rumors Of Karzai's Loss Of Faith In U.S. Military Nullified By Petraeus

by Miles Wolf Tamboli
Talk Radio News Service

At the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday and Wednesday, Senators expressed their anxiety that some, including Afghan President Hamid Karzai, may have lost their faith in America's ability to win the war in Afghanistan.

"It's very troubling that President Karzai has decided to remove his Minister of Interior and his Head of Intelligence, two of our most important partners in his government, and two men I know to be upstanding and effective," said Senator John McCain (R-AZ), referring to the Afghan President's sudden and unexplained removal of Hanif Atmar and Amrullah Saleh.

Karzai recently announced his plan for reconciliation and reintegration in Afghanistan and it has raised some concern for American lawmakers. The plan outlines the reintegration of "lower-level insurgents who renounce violence and disassociate themselves from terrorists" into Afghan society, according to Defense Undersecretary for Policy Michele Flournoy.

McCain said that concern is growing in Congress with rumors circling about Karzai's loss of faith in the U.S. military and his disbelief that America can actually win the war in Afghanistan.

"President Karzai no longer believes the United States will succeed, and he is shifting his resolve to a policy of accommodation with the Taliban," McCain said. "If true, this could be very dangerous."

Petraeus, who testified at the hearing, reassured that the allegations being made are a "characterization from some second or third-hand sources," and repeatedly emphasized that these allegations do not correlate with what Karzai told him in their own personal conversations.

U.S. Should Not Scale Back Efforts In Afghanistan In Face Of Election Cancellation, Says Analyst

By Ravi Bhatia - Talk Radio News Service

Lisa Curtis, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C., told Talk Radio News Service Monday that it would be a mistake for the United States to scale back its military efforts in Afghanistan after Hamid Karzai was declared President for another term by Afghanistan’s election commission.

“The whole election debacle was a setback for international efforts in Afghanistan,” Curtis said in a telephone interview. “That said, U.S stakes in the region are far too high to allow the imperfect election to cause us to think about scaling back the mission there.”

Karzai’s competitor, Abdullah Abdullah, dropped out of the race Sunday, citing the risk of voter fraud.

General Stanley McChrystal has requested 44,000 more troops in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama is expected to adopt a military strategy in the coming weeks.

State Dept. Official Warns Of Challenging Afghan Election

Richard Holbrooke, the State Department’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, is one of the many international figures keeping a close watch on the political situation in Afghanistan in the lead up to the country’s presidential election, but concedes that despite attempts to ensure legitimacy, the election results will not satisfy everybody.

“Will there be challenges in this election? There are in every other democracy. I think we should assume those,” Holbrooke said Wednesday during a panel discussion with his interagency task force.

“Holding an election in a war time situation is always difficult, holding one when the enemy said it was going to disrupt it is even more difficult,” Holbrooke said.

While Afghan President Hamid Karzai sought to hold elections in April, in accordance to the country’s constitution, an election commission moved the date to August 20th to prepare for security, budgetary, and technical concerns. 38 presidential candidates are currently running.

The special representative urged patience following the polls’ closing, explaining that it will take time to determine the winner.

“We aren’t going to know on the evening of August 20th who won. CNN is not going to call this election,” Holbrooke said. “There will be disputes as there are in American elections.”

While Afghanistan’s election commission would likely have an important role in declaring the election legitimate, Holbrooke stressed the importance of the media in analyzing the the results.

“You take the three most obvious examples [of contested elections]: Iran, Kenya, and Zimbabwe. No one knows what actually happened there. What you know is what you think you know, thanks to the media.”

Holbrooke touched upon the larger focus of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, and Although the representative did not give a clear definition on what factors would signal success in Afghanistan from an American perspective, he promised “we will know it when we see it.”

Afghanistan unable to support itself

While Stephen Biddle, Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) senior fellow of defense policy, believes the situation in Afghanistan is better on the ground than it has been portrayed in the U.S., he holds concern over the country’s ability to achieve its long term goal of creating a large, sustainable Afghan security force capable of protecting the population and suffocating insurgency.

“That recipe would work if there was a plausible chance that the Afghan economy could support the kind of A security forces that will be necessary in order to secure the population and I can’t see how they will ever be able to do that,” said Biddle during a telephone CFR conference with Daniel Markey, senior fellow of India, Pakistan, and South Asia on the two senior fellows’ week-long visit to Afghanistan.

Biddle discussed the importance of maintaining peacekeeping forces in Iraq for a number of years, but also stated that in order to help Afghanistan there will need to be a future reallocation of resources

“In the long term, there’s going to have to be a resource swing from Iraq to Afghanistan in order to bring about success in Afghanistan given the limits that I see in the ability of the Afghan security forces to solve the problem themselves.”

According to Biddle, if the creation of the security force was funded by the international community during a war time scenario it would run the risk of establishing a half a million person security apparatus that could not be supported by Afghanistan or receive adequate international funding during peacetime, thus further threatening the stability of the country.

Biddle suggested using a large number of non Afghan troops to negotiate a long term power sharing strategy for the country that would eventually be enforced my smaller, local Afghan forces.

Markey discussed the influence of Pakistan in U.S. dealings in Iraq, claiming that relations between U.S. forces and Pakistan’s military was more positive than what has been reported recently. “In a number of important instances they have actually been able to coordinate fire with their Pakistani counterparts. They have essentially gotten calls from the Pakistani side identify militants that were getting ready to cross across the border,” said Markey.

Markey reported that recent discussion regarding a reconciliation between Moderate Taliban elements and the Afghan government is actually political maneuvering by Afghan President Hamid Karzai rather a realistic approach. “There was a desire by Karzai to push this in order to try and win greater unity within the Pashtun community to help him in his reelection bid,” said Markey.

White House Gaggle

Briefer: Dana Perino


President’s Schedule

President Bush had his normal briefings this morning at 8 am. At 11.05, he will meet with the President of Guatemala in the Oval Office. This afternoon, President Bush meets with the US- Brazil CEO Forum. Later, at 3.30 pm, he participates in a meeting with the National Commander of the American Legion.

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino will brief the press at 1.30 pm today.




Afghanistan

Perino was asked about what concerns the Administration has in regards to the recent violence in Afghanistan including the attempted assassination of President Kharzai, and what that says about the Afghan military’s abilities to not only keep order in the country but also to protect. Her response was that, when you are dealing with terrorists, “we have to be right 100 % of the time, and the a terrorist only has to be right once… we are very concerned about it. The terrorist threat is real, it is deadly, and defeating this enemy has to be a top priority of the United States, of the Afghan government, of the Iraqi government and NATO alliance. They will continue to look at how they could have done it better, and prevent it from happening again.


Meeting with President of Guatemala

President Bush and President Alvaro Colom will discuss the Merida initiative, trade and economy. Perino was also asked in there is anything on the agenda to talk about the on going situation of US adoptions of Guatemalan babies, and she said that there was not, but they have talked about it before.


Trucker protest

Perino was asked if the Administration has anything to say to the truckers that are protesting the high prices of gasoline, and she replied that we can “understand the frustration and concern they have.” We are very aware of the high price of gasoline and the impact it is having on people across the country. We are trying to move farther and faster. “I think that it would be disingenuous and unfortunate for American consumers for them to be lead to believe that there is a short term fix, and there is not going to be one. Another part of this is that we make sure to improve efficiency and find other alternatives and find for domestic oil here at home”, Perino said.


Stimulus Package

When asked about the Administration’s thought of a second stimulus package, Perino said that they want to give the first one a chance to work. When asked what the President wants the American people to do with the money from the rebate checks, Perino said that the President wants them to decide for themselves. “Certainly, President Bush is not going to dictate what people are supposed to do with their money.”
According economists in previous historical situations, Perino said that enough people will spend their checks so that it will have the desired impact. Many people will spend, others will save and “it will be up to the American people what they decide to do.”


Syria

When asked about reports of bombing of Syria, the South Korean CIA, and intelligence gathering, Perino referred the question to the intelligence community.


Hugo Chavez

When asked for a comment on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez who has been said to help in the release of US hostages in North Korea; Perino said that she had not heard about it, but said that Chavez needs to stop supporting terrorists in the first place, but of course they would like the hostages to be released safely.