US president’s surprise visit to Afghanistan : Obama seeks Pak help against Taliban

[Neo]

US president’s surprise visit to Afghanistan : Obama seeks Pak help against Taliban

* Says Taliban on the run due to Pak Army action
* 9/11 culprits still present in the region
* Vows to get job done in Afghanistan
* Tells Karzai to do more to rein in corruption, improve governance

KABUL: US President Barack Obama on Sunday asked Pakistan to cooperate with Washington to root out the Taliban from the region.

Addressing around 25,000 US troops at the Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, where he was on an unannounced visit, Obama said terrorists were on the run because of the Pakistan government-led action against them.

Obama told the cheering troops that he was confident that they would stop the Taliban from regaining power in the country and would eradicate al Qaeda militants.

“Plots against our homeland, plots our allies, plots against the Afghan and Pakistani people are taking place as we speak right here,” he said.

Perpetrators: He said the perpetrators of 9/11 were still present in the region, vowing that the US troops had to eradicate them and sought Pakistan’s support to get the job done.

He told the US forces stationed in Afghanistan that American lives would be at risk if the Taliban regained Afghanistan’s control.

‘Do more’: Earlier, after a brief meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the presidential palace in Kabul, the US president told Afghan leaders to do more to rein in rampant corruption and improve governance.

Obama praised recent steps in the military campaign against insurgents, but said Afghans needed to see conditions on the ground get better.

“Progress will continue to be made, but we also want to make progress on the civilian front,” Obama said, referring to anti-corruption efforts, good governance and adherence to the rule of law.

Invitation: “All of these things end up resulting in an Afghanistan that is more prosperous and more secure,” Obama said. He invited Karzai to visit Washington on May 12, the White House said.

Karzai promised that his country “would move forward into the future” to eventually take over its own security, and he thanked Obama for the American intervention in his country.

The trip, its secrecy forced by security concerns, was an extraordinary capstone to a momentous week in Obama’s presidency. He achieved the most ambitious domestic policy initiative in decades with a historic healthcare overhaul and scored his first major foreign policy achievement with a significant new arms control treaty with Russia.

Obama landed in Afghanistan for a stay of just a few hours, all in darkness, after an overnight flight from Washington. He flew by helicopter from Bagram Air Field to the capital, where Karzai greeted him at the palace. It was Obama’s second stop in a war zone as the commander in chief, coming about a year after a similar secretive trip to Iraq.

The trip was intended to let Obama tell Karzai that he must deal with corruption and cut the flow of money from poppy production and drug trafficking that is sustaining the insurgency. The US also wants Karzai to halt cronyism and rewards for warlords in government hiring and to create an effective, credible judicial system.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...9-3-2010_pg1_1

[Araz]

Obama wants to see with his own eyes what a strait jacket his predesssesor's silly and thoughtless blunderbusting has led America Into. US and Pakistan both need each other perhaps more so than ever, if the US is to have a face saving exit fromAfghanistan.

[sonicboom]

Newly freed from the bruising domestic battle over healthcare reform, US President Obama was expected to turn his attention to other important things on his agenda. Afghanistan would certainly be at the top of the list of those other priorities, and over the weekend Mr Obama demonstrated this by flying into Afghanistan for the briefest of visits.

The US president delivered what appears to be a stern message to the Afghan government led by President Karzai to cut corruption, improve governance, step up the fight against the drug trade, overhaul the judicial system, and make the Afghan government more representative of the various ethnic and geographical regions in the country. If the laundry list of complaints/demands sounds familiar, it is. Americans have long been unhappy with the administration of Mr Karzai, which they accuse of following a self-serving agenda that is making it even more difficult to create a semblance of a modern state in Afghanistan.

However, those longstanding complaints have taken on a new urgency under the Obama administration, which has made a risky political commitment to step up the war against militancy in Afghanistan. Ultimately, for the counter-insurgency to succeed in Afghanistan, it has to have local ownership, not just of the military component but also the civilian component. But the Americans have been alarmed that whatever gains the military ‘surge’ may yield over the next year may be wasted if the Afghan government cannot show itself to be a viable alternative to what the Taliban have to offer. Remember that the Taliban focused on eliminating corruption, drugs and crime and delivering speedy justice during their stint in charge — and won the appreciation of ordinary Afghans for doing so. The Americans are afraid, and rightly so, that unless Mr Karzai and his government get their act together and start demonstrating that they have the ability to deliver basic public goods and services, the Afghan government will never establish itself as a desirable alternative to the Taliban insurgency.

Will upbraiding Mr Karzai do the trick though? That is unlikely for two reasons. One, the Americans are working on a timeline that has little to do with the situation in Afghanistan. ‘Fixing’ Afghanistan isn’t a question of months or even a couple of years; building a centralised state where there hasn’t been one is a matter of many, many years, perhaps even decades. Two, Mr Karzai is a wily operator who knows how to cling to power through wheeling and dealing with Afghanistan’s various power brokers. Becoming a born-again democrat focused on good governance may be a stretch too far for someone so deep in the muck of Afghan politics.

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