NATO Backs Plan to Give Command to Afghans

NATO Backs Plan to Give Command to Afghans
By MARK LANDLER
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: April 23, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/world/asia/24diplo.html?th&emc=th


TALLINN, Estonia — Setting the stage for a gradual withdrawal from Afghanistan, the United States and other NATO countries adopted a plan here Friday that sets conditions for beginning to remove troops from a lead role in Afghan provinces by the end of this year.

The plan, which NATO hopes to turn into a formal agreement with the Afghan government in July, would transfer authority to Afghans when they have met three criteria: a competent local police force, a durable civilian government and signs of reconciliation with the Taliban insurgency.

NATO’s goal is to announce in November that it has begun to hand over authority in a cluster of provinces, most likely in Afghanistan’s relatively stable north and west, officials said. If successful, the plan would help President Obama meet his deadline of starting to pull out American troops by July 2011. But American officials cautioned that the timetable could slip if security remained poor or if the insurgents proved resilient.

At a meeting of NATO foreign ministers here, the alliance received an update on the progress in the war from Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top military commander in Afghanistan, and Ambassador Mark Sedwill, NATO’s recently appointed senior civilian representative.

As the American-led coalition prepares for its next big operation, in the southern Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, Mr. Sedwill said it had learned valuable lessons from the recent campaign to stabilize Marja — namely, that achieving a rough balance of power among competing tribal groups was critical to restoring order.

The Marja campaign, he said, had been hampered because some landowners amassed so much power that they had co-opted the local police force, transforming it into a militia used against the people.

“The big lesson we learned in Marja, which we’re taking to Kandahar, is that you got to get the politics right,” Mr. Sedwill told reporters. “Balanced access to political and economic power is vital.”

Britain’s onetime ambassador to Afghanistan, Mr. Sedwill has emerged as a major figure in the Western effort in the country. Since his arrival, the United States has stopped calling for the appointment of a high-level coordinator who would function as a civilian counterpart to General McChrystal.

NATO’s progress report was welcomed here, since the emphasis in many war-weary alliance members has shifted from the combat mission to turning Afghanistan back to its own people.

Still, the Danish secretary general of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, pledged that foreign troops would continue to support Afghan soldiers long after they relinquished command. “It will not be a pullout; it will not be a run for the exit,” he said at a news conference.

NATO’s commitment to the war has come under question in recent weeks. The alliance has fallen 450 people short of a goal to supply 2,000 trainers for the Afghan national police force by October. Afghanistan wants to expand its police force to 134,000 by October 2011, from 103,000 now.

“The gap matters,” Mr. Sedwill said. “We’ve got 100,000 troops there; we ought to be able to find 450.”

The shortfall has been whittled down steadily, Mr. Rasmussen said, with Canada pledging to send 90 additional trainers. He said he was confident that NATO would be able to staff its training mission fully. The United States still supplies the large majority of police trainers.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the Obama administration was satisfied with NATO’s contribution, which now comprises 10,000 soldiers, trainers and so-called mentors.

“We started off with a significant gap and we have narrowed it considerably,” she said.

Mrs. Clinton said she was optimistic that with the proper training, the Afghan security forces and the police could be counted on to take control.

“Does that mean it will be smooth sailing?” she said of the transfer. “I don’t think so. Look at Iraq.”

Mrs. Clinton went out of her way to praise President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, with whom Washington’s relations have recently been turbulent. She said he had an impossible job, and that his successes, like the greater number of Afghan girls now in school, were not as widely reported as his failures.

Mr. Sedwill also defended Mr. Karzai, saying that his recent anti-Western outbursts reflected frustration with what Mr. Karzai viewed as the West’s disregard for Afghanistan’s sovereignty.

“They didn’t invite us in,” he said. “To many Afghans, this is essentially us fighting our war for our reasons on their soil.”