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Afghan envoy: 5 years to defeat militants

Afghanistan’s ambassador to the United States said Friday that his country could take over its own security in five years, but he cautioned that the plan depends equally on the success of American-led military efforts and civilian aid.

Ambassador Said Tayeb Jawad also said that he believed Osama bin Laden was hiding in a major city, probably in Pakistan, contrary to more prevalent speculation that the 9/11 mastermind was in a lawless region on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

“If he were in Afghanistan, he would have been found,” the ambassador told the Johns Hopkins University’s Center on Politics and Foreign Relations. “I don’t think that he is in a cave because of his health conditions, needing dialysis, and needing connectivity to the network of al-Qaida. He is most probably in a major metropolitan area.”

Asked if that city were in Pakistan, Jawad said, “That would be a very good guess.”

President Barack Obama announced this week that the U.S. would send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan with the goal of training the Afghani military and police to handle security themselves. Obama said U.S. forces would begin withdrawing from Afghanistan within 18 months.

Jawad said that is a realistic expectation. But he cautioned that the pace of transition depends on how successful the U.S. and its NATO allies are in not only defeating Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents, but in helping Afghanistan build institutions of government, security and education.

“We are planning on taking the lead on the military operation within three years and, in five years, according to our plan, we should be able to take the responsibility of security throughout the country,” Jawad said. “Of course we think the best exit strategy for the U.S. is success.”

Critics, including many Democrats in Congress, have expressed concern that corruption inside the Afghanistan government and a lack of security outside of Kabul Province make any timetable suspect.

Jawad said that “we hear very clearly your message about the need to improve government in Afghanistan, to fight corruption.”

But the ambassador also said that the war and rebuilding efforts had not gone as well as the United States and other allies expected because they had been neglected and poorly run. He said too much of the international aid and military effort had bypassed the Afghan government, which Jawad said makes it impossible to build competent government and security.

Jawad said police officers are routinely paid a third, or less, than cooks or drivers for the United Nations and international aid groups. He also said that until recently, Afghan security forces had not received adequate weapons, and that the U.S. and its allies had provided less than half of the 2,375 police “mentors” necessary to train forces in a dangerous country. An average of three Afghan police officers die each day, he said.

“The job of the police officer is not to issue a parking citation for a car bomb,” Jawad said. “The job is to stay alive first. The approach was not proper, the resources were limited.”

Asked how the Taliban had re-emerged after U.S.-led forces had driven them from power in late 2001, Jawad said, “We didn’t defeat the Taliban; we literally pushed them aside.

“We pushed them into the countryside of Afghanistan and into Pakistan, and then we didn’t stay focused on Afghanistan. There were other, bigger wars and crises. Had we stayed focused on Afghanistan and started building the security institutions of Afghanistan on time there would be no need for additional U.S. troops at this point.”

He said he was asked after Obama’s speech why American soldiers should be fighting for Afghanistan.

“Quite frankly, sometimes I am surprised how quickly people will go back to the mindset of Sept. 10,” he said. “You are in the mountains of Afghanistan to provide security on the streets of New York and Europe.”