U.S. Afghan Envoy Urges Caution on Troop Increase
Raymond
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and MARK LANDLER
Published: November 11, 2009
WASHINGTON — The United States ambassador to Afghanistan, who once
served as the top American military commander there, has expressed in
writing his reservations about deploying additional troops to the
country, three senior American officials said Wednesday.
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The position of the ambassador, Karl W. Eikenberry, a retired
lieutenant general, puts him in stark opposition to the current
American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A.
McChrystal, who has asked for 40,000 more troops.
General Eikenberry sent his reservations to Washington in a cable last
week, the officials said. In that same period, President Obama and his
national security advisers have begun examining an option that would
send relatively few troops to Afghanistan, about 10,000 to 15,000,
with most designated as trainers for the Afghan security forces.
This low-end option was one of four alternatives under consideration
by Mr. Obama and his war council at a meeting in the White House
Situation Room on Wednesday afternoon. The other three options call
for troop levels of around 20,000, 30,000 and 40,000, the three
officials said.
Mr. Obama asked General Eikenberry about his concerns during the
meeting on Wednesday, officials said, and raised questions about each
of the four military options and how they might be tinkered with or
changed. A central focus of Mr. Obama’s questions, officials said, was
how long it would take to see results and be able to withdraw.
“He wants to know where the off-ramps are,” one official said.
The officials, who requested anonymity in order to discuss delicate
White House deliberations, did not describe General Eikenberry’s
reasons for opposing additional American forces, although he has
recently expressed strong concerns about President Hamid Karzai’s
reliability as a partner and corruption in his government. Mr. Obama
appointed General Eikenberry as ambassador in January.
During two tours in Afghanistan — from 2005 to 2007, when he served as
the top American commander, and from 2002 to 2003, when he was
responsible for building and training the Afghan security forces —
General Eikenberry encountered what he later described as the Afghan
government’s dependence on Americans to do the job that then-President
George W. Bush was urging the Afghans to begin doing themselves.
Pentagon officials said the low-end option of 10,000 to 15,000 more
troops would mean little or no significant increase in American combat
forces in Afghanistan. The bulk of the additional forces would go to
train the Afghan Army, with a smaller number focused on hunting and
killing terrorists, the officials said.
The low-end option would essentially reject the more ambitious
counterinsurgency strategy envisioned by General McChrystal, which
calls for a large number of forces to protect the Afghan population,
work on development projects and build up the country’s civil
institutions.
It would largely deprive General McChrystal of the ability to send
large numbers of American forces to the southern provinces in
Afghanistan where the Taliban control broad areas of territory. And it
would limit the number of population centers the United States could
secure, officials said.
General Eikenberry crossed paths with General McChrystal during his
second tour in Afghanistan, when General McChrystal led the military’s
Joint Special Operations Command, which conducted clandestine
operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Their relationship, a senior military official said last year, was
occasionally tense as General McChrystal pushed for approval for
commando missions, and General Eikenberry was resistant because of
concerns that the missions were too risky and could lead to civilian
casualties.
It was unclear whether General Eikenberry, who participated in the
Afghanistan policy meeting on Wednesday by video link from Kabul, the
Afghan capital, had been asked by the White House to put his views in
writing. It was also unclear how persuasive they will be with Mr.
Obama.
A spokesman for the State Department declined to comment, while a
spokesman for General Eikenberry in Kabul could not be reached for
comment late Wednesday.
Administration officials say that in recent meetings on Afghanistan at
the White House, the president has repeatedly asked whether a large
American force might undercut the urgency of training the Afghan
security forces and persuading them to fight more on their own.
As Mr. Obama nears a decision, the White House is sending officials to
brief allies and other countries on an almost weekly basis. The
administration’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan,
Richard C. Holbrooke, is heading to Paris, Berlin and Moscow. Other
officials in his office are meeting with Chinese officials in Beijing.
Mr. Obama is expected to mull over his options during a trip to Asia
that begins Thursday. He is due back in Washington on Nov. 19 and
could announce the policy before Thanksgiving, officials said, but is
more likely to wait until early December.
General Eikenberry has been an energetic envoy, traveling widely
around Afghanistan to meet with tribal leaders and to inspect American
development projects.
He has been pushing the State Department for additional civilian
personnel in the country, including in areas like agriculture, where
the United States wants to help wean farmers off cultivating poppies.
The State Department has tried to accommodate his requests, according
to a senior official, but has turned down some because of budget
constraints and its desire to cap the overall number of civilians in
Afghanistan at roughly 1,000.
He played a significant role, along with Senator John Kerry of
Massachusetts, in persuading Mr. Karzai last month to accept the
results of an election commission, which called for a runoff
presidential ballot.
That vote never took place because Mr. Karzai’s main opponent,
Abdullah Abdullah, subsequently withdrew from the contest.
But General Eikenberry also angered Mr. Karzai early in the campaign
when he appeared at news conferences called by three of Mr. Karzai’s
opponents. American officials said Mr. Karzai viewed that as an
inappropriate intrusion into Afghanistan’s domestic politics.
The White House Afghanistan meeting lasted from 2:30 p.m. to 4:50
p.m., and was Mr. Obama’s eighth session in two months on the
subject.
A few hours before the meeting began, the president walked through the
rain-soaked grass at Arlington National Cemetery, stopping by Section
60, where troops from Iraq and Afghanistan are buried.
It was Mr. Obama’s first Veterans Day since taking office, and in an
address at the cemetery he hailed the sacrifice and determination of
the nation’s military.
“In this time of war, we gather here, mindful that the generation
serving today already deserves a place alongside previous generations
for the courage they have shown and the sacrifices that they have
made,” Mr. Obama said.
Mark Mazzetti, David E. Sanger, Jeff Zeleny and Eric Schmitt
contributed reporting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/us/politics/12policy.html?_r=1&ref=world
Patriot Games
wrote:
>U.S. Afghan Envoy Urges Caution on Troop Increase
>By ELISABETH BUMILLER and MARK LANDLER
>Published: November 11, 2009
>WASHINGTON � The United States ambassador to Afghanistan, who once
>served as the top American military commander there
No, he wasn't the "top American military commander there."
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_Forces_Command_-_Afghanistan#U.S.-led_Coalition
>The position of the ambassador, Karl W. Eikenberry
He's Buckwheat's hand-picked ButtBoy.