US AMBASSADOR to Kabul Karl Eikenberry has urged President Barack Obama not to raise troop levels in Afghanistan in the present circumstances.
Mr Eikenberry offered the advice in two strongly worded classified cables before a National Security Council meeting devoted to the Afghan war on Wednesday, the Washington Postrevealed. It was the eighth such meeting this autumn.
After the meeting, the White House issued a statement that reflected Mr Eikenberry’s concerns. “The president believes that we need to make clear to the Afghan government that our commitment is not open-ended,” it said. “After years of substantial investments by the American people, governance in Afghanistan must improve in a reasonable period of time.”
The ambassador argued that President Hamid Karzai’s government is too inept and too corrupt to be supported with further troop increases. The cables put Mr Eikenberry at odds with Gen Stanley McChrystal, the overall US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, who has asked Mr Obama to send an additional 40,000 US troops, in addition to the 68,000 already deployed.
A retired four-star general, Mr Eikenberry was in charge of training Afghan troops before he commanded US troops in Afghanistan from 2006 until 2007.
Perhaps to compensate for his own lack of military experience, Mr Obama appointed several retired generals and a retired admiral to top positions in his administration.
“You got to dance with them what brung you,” one of the oldest sayings in US politics, sums up the problem Mr Karzai poses for the Obama administration. Mr Karzai’s government would not exist without US support, yet it is has been involved in election fraud, rampant corruption and drug trafficking.
When Mr Karzai was reinstated for a second five-year term last week, Mr Obama said he wanted to see “a sense on the part of President Karzai that, after some difficult years in which there has been some drift, that in fact he’s going to move boldly and forcefully forward and take advantage of the international community’s interest in his country to initiate reforms internally”.
Ambassador Eikenberry says sending reinforcements would increase Afghan dependence on the US at a time when the US is asking Afghan security forces to take over.
Ten Republican senators attempted to put pressure on Mr Obama in a Veterans’ Day letter urging him to “fully support Gen McChrystal’s call for additional resources and troops”. Mr Obama has been considering four strategy options put forward by his cabinet and including troop increases ranging from 10,000 to 40,000 soldiers.
The latest National Security Council meeting lasted more than two hours and was attended by the defence secretary, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, the commander of US forces in the Middle East and Asia and Mr Obama’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The Associated Press reported that Mr Obama rejected all four options, asking for a strategy that defines how and when US troops will turn over responsibility to Afghan forces.
The president may announce his decision in a televised address soon after his return from a tour of Asia on November 19th.
The US holds little leverage over Mr Karzai, who in recent months defied US wishes by allying himself with Gen Rashid Dostum, who is accused of having massacred opponents, and by appointing Marshal Muhammad Qasim Fahim, who is suspected of corruption, as one of two vice-presidents.
A total US withdrawal is not an option because President Karzai would fall, the Taliban would regain power and neighbouring Pakistan would be destabilised.