Hagel Voices Frustration with Afghan Foot-Dragging
Thursday, 30 Jan 2014 03:33 PM
Expressing growing impatience, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said
Thursday he doesn't know what to believe about new assurances from Afghanistan
that President Hamid Karzai is moving closer to signing a pact to keep American
troops in his country next year as advisers.
"What is coming out of the
presidential palace today, or what President Karzai says today, I don't
know," Hagel told a news conference in Warsaw. "It changes constantly."
Hagel pointedly noted that Karzai
had "agreed — personally agreed — to the bilateral security
agreement" negotiated between the two nations last year, yet continues to
balk at signing it.
The deal would allow some U.S. service
members to remain and keep training Afghan soldiers after most of the 39,000
troops now there withdraw. The 12-year-old U.S. combat mission is set to end
in December.
The Obama administration has
indicated it might be willing to keep as many as 10,000 military trainers in Afghanistan to
advise forces fighting the Taliban insurgency.
Earlier, on his overnight flight
from Washington to Warsaw, Hagel told reporters that Karzai's
foot-dragging puts at risk the planning necessary for a post-combat mission.
"You can't just keep
deferring and deferring," he said, "because at some point, the
realities of planning and budgeting — it collides."
Since the new year, the Obama
administration has repeatedly said it needs an agreement signed in weeks, not
months, if it is to keep any troops in Afghanistan in 2015.
In Kabul on Thursday, Karzai's national security
adviser voiced optimism about the pact.
Rangin Dadfar Spanta said he has
grown more hopeful that the Afghan leader will sign the agreement before
leaving office this year. Karzai has repeatedly said he wants to wait to sign
the document until after the country chooses his successor in April 5
elections.
At a news conference, Spanta said
intense talks in the last few days have made him "more optimistic"
that the stalemate can be broken.
"We are working very
intensively together with the United
States authorities to reach and sign this
agreement soon," Spanta said. "I cannot go today into detail, but I
don't know — since two, three, four days, I am more optimistic compared to last
week. Let us wait a few days more."
If the deal falls apart, Afghanistan
could lose up to $15 billion a year in aid, effectively collapsing its fragile
economy and making it unable to pay its 350,000-strong army and police.
Hagel, who was visiting Polish
leaders to consult on Afghanistan
and other security issues, sounded skeptical at his news conference in Warsaw when asked about
Spanta's remarks.
Saying that the Afghan president's
position keeps changing, Hagel noted that U.S.
officials, including Gen. Joseph Dunford,
the top US military
commander in Afghanistan,
have pressed Karzai and "talk with him constantly." But they have
limited ability to influence his decision, Hagel said.
He added that U.S. allies who
are willing to help train and advise Afghan forces beyond 2014 also are eager
to know if there will be a U.S.-Afghan security agreement soon.
Insurgents in Afghanistan
have intensified attacks recently in a campaign to regain territory as foreign
forces prepare to leave the country.
Afghanistan
Marc
Grossman was a special representative for Afghanistan, a director
at the Atlantic Council of the United States
(think tank), and a trustee at the German
Marshall Fund of the United States.
German
Marshall Fund of the United States was a funder for the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), and
the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace (think tank).
Richard C.
Holbrooke was a special U.S.
envoy in Afghanistan
for the Barack Obama administration,
and a director at the Atlantic Council
of the United States
(think tank).
Zalmay Khalilzad
was the U.S. ambassador for Afghanistan,
and is a director at the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank).
Chuck
Hagel was the chairman for the Atlantic
Council of the United States
(think tank), and is the secretary at the U.S. Department of Defense for the Barack Obama administration.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Atlantic Council of the United
States (think tank), and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
(think tank).
George
Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, and a board member for the International Crisis Group.
Jessica Tuchman Mathews is a board
member for the International Crisis
Group, the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
(think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg
(think tank), ), was an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think
tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Ed Griffin’s interview with
Norman Dodd in 1982
(The investigation into the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace uncovered the plans for population
control by involving the United
States in war)
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace (think tank), and the Brookings Institution (think
tank).
George Soros
was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Ivo
H. Daalder was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank),
is a director at the Atlantic Council of
the United States (think
tank), and the NATO U.S. permanent
representative.
Chuck
Hagel was the chairman for the Atlantic
Council of the United States
(think tank), and is the secretary at the U.S. Department of Defense for the Barack Obama administration.
NATO
is the overseer for the International
Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan
is a NATO mission for the International Security Assistance Force in
Afghanistan.
Joseph F.
Dunford Jr. is the commander nominee for the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, and a U.S. Marine Corps general.
John
R. Allen was the commander for the International
Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, the NATO supreme allied commander Europe
nominee, and is a fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
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