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Faced With a Taliban Revival, Washington Tries to Remobilize its Regional Allies    [

    The Iraqi Distraction
    AFP
    Le Monde

    Friday 30 June 2006

NATO deplores that the international community has forgotten Afghanistan.

    Kabul - The international community does not listen to the Afghan government enough and has allowed itself to be distracted by the war in Iraq, which has allowed the Taliban to regain power in Afghanistan, the Head of NATO forces in the country, General Dave Richards, declared.

    "I am critical of the entire international community because it doesn't listen to Afghans enough, in particular to their government," the British General, who is at the head of the NATO stabilization force (ISAF), declared in an interview broadcast by the BBC's Pashtun language service.

    The general follows in the path of President Hamid Karzai, who had criticized the way the international community combats terrorism, deeming, notably, that it was not acceptable that hundreds of people be killed in Afghanistan, even if they are Taliban.

    "There is no doubt that there's a return of the Taliban problem," the general acknowledged, all the while emphasizing that he thinks he has won the battle against the rebels. "I'm optimistic; it's not too late to put the Taliban back in their box," he said.

    General Richards will take command of operations in the south of Afghanistan at the end of July, by far the region where the rebels are most active.

    According to him, this return can be explained "broadly by the fact that people did not keep their eyes on the objective and that vacuum was filled by the Taliban," the general explained. "I think that, from an international point of view, Iraq has monopolized people's interest and resources for a while," he added.

    For several months now, Afghanistan has experienced the strongest wave of violence since the fall of the Taliban regime provoked at the end of 2001 by an international military coalition led by the United States. The south of the country is particularly affected.

    "Probably we underestimated the potential for a return [of the Taliban], but that is no longer the case," the general assured.

    He is very much counting on the fact that the NATO forces in the south will be double those the coalition presently has available, which will, according to him, allow them to conduct many more humanitarian and development activities.

    "We didn't do enough in the south," General Richards also acknowledged. "The population in the south has benefited very little from the billions of aid dollars spent in Afghanistan by the international community, while the region is the cradle of the 'students of religions' movement," he further judged.

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    Faced With a Taliban Revival, Washington Tries to Remobilize its Regional Allies
    By Fran oise Chipaux
    Le Monde

    Thursday 29 June 2006

    Come to Islamabad and Kabul to try to breathe some life back into the antiterrorist war and to stop the degradation of the situation in Afghanistan, American secretary of state Condoleezza Rice couldn't help but observe the divergence of opinion between the two countries with respect to what action to undertake.

    Pakistan once again rejected Kabul's accusations about its aid to the Taliban. In Ms. Rice's presence, Foreign Affairs Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri recalled that Pakistan has deployed 80,000 soldiers along the Afghan border and is soon to add another 10,000 - that is to say, a number far higher than the number of American (20,000) and Afghan troops.

    "We have 650 martyred soldiers," Mr. Kasuri added referring to the soldiers who fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda faithful who have taken refuge in the Pakistani tribal zones. The accusations recently brought, including those by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, against Pakistan have seriously deteriorated the already-tense relations between the two neighbors. On the ground, Islamabad demonstrates little enthusiasm for restraining the Islamist extremists who preach jihad (holy war) against the Afghan government and its foreign supporters.

    In Kabul, Ms. Rice sought above all to comfort President Karzai, whose position is ever more weakened by the resurgence of violence across the country and the lack of progress in reconstruction. "I know of no person more respected in the international community than President Karzai, for his strength, his wisdom, and his courage," she maintained during a brief press conference at his side. "There is much admiration for your president and for what the Afghan people are realizing here."

    The secretary of state reasserted the American decision to stay in the country, although the drop in Washington's aid and the upcoming handover from the coalition led by the United States to NATO are perceived by many as an American recoil. "Afghanistan has determined and pitiless enemies, but they will not succeed. We are not going to weary; we are not going to leave," she said. "The enemy should know we are committed to this fight up to its victorious conclusion."

    In implicit response to President Karzai, who criticized the coalition last week for the great number of Afghans killed during its operations, Ms. Rice indicated: "We must constantly revise our tactics, our strategies, to assure that we are responding to (the enemies') changes in tactics," she noted, evoking "great progress" in that regard.

    Since she came to Kabul with President George Bush in March, Ms. Rice could have observed the drastic change in mood in Afghanistan, due to the rapid deterioration in security (11 coalition soldiers, including 8 Americans and 2 British have been killed since mid-June.). If the situation in the southern provinces where the coalition has launched a new occupation is the most worrying, incidents are increasing in the west and the north. In this context, the glowing report delivered to Mr. Karzai risks strengthening the feeling among the populace that the international community supports a corrupt and incompetent administration indifferent to the fate of the people.