Posted on 08/27/2002 4:22:41 AM PDT by ejdrapes
Paul Wolfowitz tells Ahmed Rashid of America's new initiative to take the lead in rebuilding Afghan society
America unveiled a major switch in its strategy in Afghanistan yesterday: instead of concentrating solely on the war on al-Qa'eda, it will now take a lead in the "nation-building" it shunned for months.
It is to press donor countries to fulfil the financial pledges they have already made to speed up reconstruction of the war-torn country and help President Hamid Karzai to stabilise it.
It is also dropping its opposition to the expansion of the International Security Assistance Force peacekeeping mission, both in size and scope, so that it can operate beyond Kabul, the capital.
The move away from a purely military approach is the most significant shift in the Bush administration's policy since the end of the war in Afghanistan, and will be welcomed by Britain, other European countries and the United Nations. Tony Blair has long stressed the importance of rebuilding Afghanistan.
Paul Wolfowitz, the US deputy secretary of defence, one of the leading hawks in the Bush administration, told The Daily Telegraph: "I do think increasingly our focus is shifting to training the Afghan national army, supporting ISAF, supporting reconstruction efforts - those kind of things that contribute to long-term stability.
"My biggest single concern is that the economic aid that was promised at the Tokyo conference, which I think is crucial not just for economic purposes but for political and security purposes, is just not coming through at the levels that were pledged."
The Tokyo conference in January pledged $4.5 billion (£3 billion) in international aid for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, of which donor nations promised to give $1.8 billion this year.
"The statistic I recall is that barely 30 per cent of what was promised for this year has been delivered," Mr Wolfowitz said. "Clearly there are major aspects of this that have implications not only for the daily welfare of people, but also for the general security situation."
This is the first time that a senior Defence Department official has defined the conflict in Afghanistan in more than military terms and combating al-Qa'eda.
Other Pentagon officers said they would be co-ordinating a major diplomatic initiative across the world in the weeks ahead to persuade wealthy donor countries to "deliver the money they had promised to Afghanistan as quickly as possible".
"I would like to see a much bigger effort made in rebuilding of infrastructure of transportation and communications in the country," Mr Wolfowitz said.
"Afghanistan can be a potentially enormously important trading route within the region which would bring enormous benefits and prosperity and give incentives to people not to fight and feud because they see the benefits coming from stability."
He made it clear that America would no longer block the expansion of ISAF to other cities beyond Kabul and suggested that ISAF forces could be increased in Kabul.
"We are looking very seriously at what might be done if we get more contributions to ISAF. There are some suggestions that expanding ISAF in Kabul might be a good thing also," he said.
The UN and Mr Karzai urged in January that ISAF should be expanded to five other Afghan cities. America opposed the idea, fearing that it would interfere in its war with al-Qa'eda.
At that time several European countries were willing to commit more troops, but now that America has dropped its opposition to ISAF's expansion, no European country is at present willing to donate additional peacekeepers to Afghanistan.
Until June, Britain led some 4,500 troops from 19 countries in peacekeeping duties in Kabul. Britain's lead role has now been taken over by Turkey, whose six-month mandate expires at the end of the year.
"The big obstacle remains that we are having difficulty finding someone to take over when the Turks leave," Mr Wolfowitz said. "At the moment the issue is sustaining ISAF first. Expanding it is valuable, but it cannot be the first priority."
The Pentagon is now examining several options, including how ISAF could develop mobile forces, a suggestion that was first mooted several months ago by Major-General Sir John McColl, the British general who led ISAF until June, and the UN special representative to Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi.
America does not provide peacekeepers to ISAF, although it contributes air power, transport and emergency evacuation for all ISAF forces in Kabul and is paying Turkey a significant sum for its troop contribution to ISAF.
Washington is also playing a lead role in helping build a new Afghan national army. However, experts have said it will not be very effective until America stops supporting and funding some of the warlords who are helping the US military find al-Qa'eda.
"I don't think in most parts of the country that the power of the warlords is a function of any support they get from us," said Mr Wolfowitz. "Obviously there are places where we are working with local forces in pursuing our own tasks and obviously they must benefit from that, but the real strength of the warlords comes from their local roots."
He suggested that warlord power would be gradually diminished as the new army was built and economic incentives were created. "If they [the warlords] want the economic benefits from economic assistance, then they have to co-operate in various ways.
"It is 23 years of civil war that brought us to this condition and it's not something you can reverse by snapping your fingers, as much as you would like to," he said.
He added that there were now no large concentrations of al-Qa'eda forces in Afghanistan and its threat was now "small numbers here and there - although there continue to be small numbers in lots of places". The US military now faced "a lot of difficult work to root out those groups".
Mr Wolfowitz also emphasised the danger of al-Qa'eda regrouping in Pakistan, although it was not the only country to which al-Qa'eda elements had fled.
"Pakistan is convenient in terms of those people who were in Afghanistan and convenient because there are large numbers of extremists in Pakistan itself," he said. "We are concerned about that and concerned about the stability of Pakistan over the long term."
Nice PR stunt for the Arabs and the Euros, but I doubt it will boost up their support this very moment.
Sounds to me like we are trying to step up the aid from other sources so that we can get out of Dodge.
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