THE WHITE House and the head of Nato have defended US tactics against the Taliban after the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, again angered Washington by publicly criticising military operations and calling for a reduction in the number of troops on the ground.
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, threw her support behind targeted assaults and raids against Taliban fighters after Mr Karzai told the Washington Post that they increased Afghan civilians’ hostility to coalition forces and helped the insurgents.
Mr Karzai said: “The time has come to reduce military operations [and] boots in Afghanistan . . . to reduce the intrusiveness into the daily Afghan life.”
Nato’s military commander in Afghanistan, Gen David Petraeus, responded to Mr Karzai’s demands by warning that his criticisms threatened to undermine the war and could make Gen Petraeus’s position “untenable”, the Post reported.
Mrs Clinton yesterday supported Gen Petraeus, saying that while the US shared some of Mr Karzai’s concerns about the toll of raids on civilians, the strategy was right. “We believe that the use of intelligence-driven, precision, targeted operations against high-value insurgents and their networks is a key component of our comprehensive civilian-military operations,” she said.
The head of Nato, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, also backed US military tactics days before Barack Obama, other Nato leaders and Mr Karzai are to meet in Lisbon to map out a gradual shift in security responsibility from foreign troops to Afghan forces, beginning next year. The US yesterday said it expected the plan to confirm that Nato forces would remain to carry out combat missions until 2014.
Mr Rasmussen said that the military assault against the Taliban must continue in order to force them to the negotiating table: “I consider it of utmost importance to continue our military operations because it is the increasing military pressure on the Taliban and the Taliban leadership that has stimulated the reconciliation talks.
“I can’t say I agree with everything President Karzai has stated on all issues, but we also have to accept that he is the elected president of the country and of course he can express his views as he wishes.”
The Afghan government yesterday tried to undo some of the damage caused by Mr Karzai’s interview, the latest in a series of public disagreements with the Americans, who have come to view him as erratic.
Mr Karzai’s spokesman, Waheed Omar, said that the full text showed that the Afghan president was “very clear about his confidence in General Petraeus”.
He said that Mr Karzai was not making a “critique” of the overall strategy in Afghanistan, and that he had been speaking in the context of the transition plan, which calls for Afghan forces to gradually take the leading role in operations.
He said that the international coalition understood the government’s “traditional and cultural sensitivities” over raids on homes by foreign soldiers.
Nato officials have been irritated by the quotes because Afghan forces are involved in night raids – something the government has been lobbying for years for.
One diplomat described Mr Karzai’s remarks as “astounding and breathtaking”. He said: “Is it right to undermine the strategy of your partner so directly and fundamentally in public without telling him first?” – (Guardian service)