Omar Sobhani/Reuters
An American soldier, center, kept watch during a security transition
ceremony from a private security company to the Afghan government at a
power plant in Kabul on Wednesday.
By ROD NORDLAND and MATTHEW ROSENBERG
KABUL, Afghanistan — Prospects for an orderly withdrawal of NATO
forces from Afghanistan suffered two blows on Thursday as President
Hamid Karzai demanded that the United States confine troops to major
bases by next year, and the Taliban announced that they were
suspending peace talks with the Americans.
Getting talks started with the Taliban has been a major goal of the
United States and its NATO allies for the past two years, and only in
recent months was there concrete evidence of progress.
And the declaration by President Karzai, if carried out, would greatly
accelerate the pace of transition from NATO to Afghan control, which
previously was envisioned to be complete by 2014. Defense officials
admitted there was a major divide between Mr. Karzai's declaration and
the American goals of training the Afghan security forces and
conducting counterinsurgency operations. Successful counterinsurgency
requires close working relationships with rural Afghans to help build
schools, roads and bring about other improvements.
Asked if it was possible to take all American forces out of villages
by 2013 and still train Afghan security forces and conduct
counterinsurgency operations, a senior American defense official
replied, "It's not clear that we would be able to."
Mr. Karzai declaration came in reaction to widespread Afghan anger
over the massacre by an American soldier of 16 civilians in Kandahar
on Sunday, and the decision of the military authorities to remove the
soldier from Afghanistan, which was reported on Wednesday.
The Taliban statement, issued in English and Pashto on an insurgent
Web site, said talks with an American representative had commenced
over the release of some Taliban members from the Guantánamo Bay
prison, but accused the American representative of changing the
preconditions for the talks.
The statement did not make clear what preconditions were
objectionable, but the statement emphasized that the Taliban were only
interested in talking with the Americans, and criticized "propaganda"
about the talks that American officials had issued. Zabiullah Mujahid,
a spokesman for the Taliban reached by cellphone at an undisclosed
location, said the statement suspending the talks was genuine but
declined to discuss it further.
It was unclear if the two developments might have been related. But
both came to light just as Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta had left
Afghanistan after a tense two-day visit that included talks with Mr.
Karzai, and the Afghanistan president's announcement in particular
appeared to be a surprise. On Wednesday, President Obama said in
Washington that the timetable for an Afghanistan withdrawal would not
change.
Defense officials traveling with Mr. Panetta in Abu Dhabi said that
the tone of the meeting between Mr. Karzai and Mr. Panetta was more
positive than Mr. Karzai's statement would indicate, and that he made
no demands of the defense secretary — suggesting that the statement
was in part aimed at a domestic audience enraged not only by the
massacre but also by recent Koran burnings.
The officials acknowledged that Mr. Karzai told Mr. Panetta during
their meeting that American troops should be confined to major bases
by next year, but the officials sought to publicly tamp down the
differences and portray the two countries as working together.
"Secretary Panetta said, 'We're on the same page here,' " the Pentagon
press secretary, George Little, quoted Mr. Panetta as telling Mr.
Karzai.
Mr. Panetta, speaking to reporters after the meeting, said he had told
Mr. Karzai that the military pledged a full investigation of the
massacre and would bring the gunman to justice. He said that Mr.
Karzai had not brought up the transfer of the suspect, an Army staff
sergeant, to Kuwait.
Although the move was likely to further anger Afghans, who had called
for him to be tried in their country, Lieutenant Gen. Curtis M.
Scaparrotti, the No. 2 American commander in Afghanistan, told
reporters that the Afghans had been informed of the move ahead of
time, and he said that "their response is that they understood."
General Scaparrotti said that the American military would likely not
make the suspect's name public until and if he was formally charged.
He did not say when that might happen. "We are conscious of due
process," he said.
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
--
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