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NATO Sees Role After Afghan Combat
Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
President Obama and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan during a bilateral meeting at the NATO summit in Lisbon.
By STEVEN ERLANGER and JACKIE CALMES
Published: November 20, 2010
LISBON — NATO and Afghanistan agreed Saturday to the goal of a phased transfer of security responsibility to the Afghan government by the end of 2014, but NATO officials acknowledged that allied forces would remain in Afghanistan, at least in a support role, well beyond that date.
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NATO and American officials also warned that if Afghanistan had not made sufficient progress in managing its own security, 2014 was not a hard and fast deadline for the end of combat operations.
“We will stay after transition in a supporting role,” Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the secretary general of NATO, said at a news conference on Saturday after signing a long-term security agreement with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan.
NATO officials had previously said it was likely that tens of thousands of support troops would remain in Afghanistan past 2014 to provide training and other security guarantees to Kabul. But the statements by Mr. Rasmussen and other officials on Saturday were the most definitive to date.
Despite the show of unity at the summit meeting here, there were also signs of sharp disagreements behind the scenes. Asked about Mr. Karzai’s demands that the NATO-led coalition stop carrying out night raids and limit airstrikes, which military commanders consider among their most effective tools but which have caused civilian casualties, President Obama was blunt.
“If we’re ponying up billions of dollars,” Mr. Obama said, “to ensure that President Karzai can continue to build and develop his country, then he’s got to also pay attention to our concerns as well.”
While calling civilian deaths “an entirely legitimate issue on the part of President Karzai,” Mr. Obama said “he’s got to understand that I’ve got a bunch of young men and women” who are “in a foreign country being shot at” and “need to protect themselves.”
At a closed-door meeting here, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, set out his strategy for the transition, confirming that the kind of operations Mr. Karzai has criticized, including drone missile strikes and nighttime raids, would continue aggressively.
In a separate NATO-Russia summit meeting here that both sides called historic, President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia agreed to explore cooperation with the alliance on a missile-defense system that would protect all of Europe.
But the main work of the day was Afghanistan, where officials made it clear that the Western military commitment there would stretch beyond 2014.
Mr. Rasmussen said that he and Mr. Karzai had agreed to “a long-term partnership between NATO and Afghanistan that will endure beyond our combat mission.”
He said the aim of the agreement was to hand security responsibility to Afghan forces by the end of 2014, and for foreign troops serving in the coalition, known as the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, to cease combat by then. But that deadline was also hedged.
“I don’t foresee ISAF troops in a combat role beyond 2014, provided of course that the security situation allows us to move into a more supportive role,” he said.
Mr. Obama also confirmed that the American military, which now has about 100,000 troops in Afghanistan, would remain in some form.
“Certainly, our footprint will have been significantly reduced,” he said. “But beyond that, you know, it’s hard to anticipate exactly what is going to be necessary.”
He added that “it is a goal to make sure that we are not still engaged in combat operations of the sort that we’re involved with now.”
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who was in Chile on Saturday, said only a “fraction” of the current allied forces in Afghanistan would be likely to remain past 2014, and they would be “very much focused on the kind of train and advise and assist role that we’re now taking on in Iraq.”
Officials have said that NATO’s withdrawal was contingent on the ability of Afghan forces to take on their new responsibilities.
“2014 is a goal, not a guarantee,” Mark Sedwill, NATO’s top civilian representative in Kabul, said Saturday. Last week he said that poor security in some areas could delay the pullout date, and that Afghanistan could face “eye-watering levels of violence by Western standards.”
On Saturday, he offered a brighter outlook, saying that a 2014 withdrawal was “realistic and we’ve made plans to achieve it, but of course if circumstances agree, it could be sooner.”
Stephen Crowley/The New York TimesPresident Obama and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan during a bilateral meeting at the NATO summit in Lisbon.
By STEVEN ERLANGER and JACKIE CALMES
Published: November 20, 2010
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LISBON — NATO and Afghanistan agreed Saturday to the goal of a phased transfer of security responsibility to the Afghan government by the end of 2014, but NATO officials acknowledged that allied forces would remain in Afghanistan, at least in a support role, well beyond that date.
Related
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NATO and American officials also warned that if Afghanistan had not made sufficient progress in managing its own security, 2014 was not a hard and fast deadline for the end of combat operations.
“We will stay after transition in a supporting role,” Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the secretary general of NATO, said at a news conference on Saturday after signing a long-term security agreement with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan.
NATO officials had previously said it was likely that tens of thousands of support troops would remain in Afghanistan past 2014 to provide training and other security guarantees to Kabul. But the statements by Mr. Rasmussen and other officials on Saturday were the most definitive to date.
Despite the show of unity at the summit meeting here, there were also signs of sharp disagreements behind the scenes. Asked about Mr. Karzai’s demands that the NATO-led coalition stop carrying out night raids and limit airstrikes, which military commanders consider among their most effective tools but which have caused civilian casualties, President Obama was blunt.
“If we’re ponying up billions of dollars,” Mr. Obama said, “to ensure that President Karzai can continue to build and develop his country, then he’s got to also pay attention to our concerns as well.”
While calling civilian deaths “an entirely legitimate issue on the part of President Karzai,” Mr. Obama said “he’s got to understand that I’ve got a bunch of young men and women” who are “in a foreign country being shot at” and “need to protect themselves.”
At a closed-door meeting here, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, set out his strategy for the transition, confirming that the kind of operations Mr. Karzai has criticized, including drone missile strikes and nighttime raids, would continue aggressively.
In a separate NATO-Russia summit meeting here that both sides called historic, President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia agreed to explore cooperation with the alliance on a missile-defense system that would protect all of Europe.
But the main work of the day was Afghanistan, where officials made it clear that the Western military commitment there would stretch beyond 2014.
Mr. Rasmussen said that he and Mr. Karzai had agreed to “a long-term partnership between NATO and Afghanistan that will endure beyond our combat mission.”
He said the aim of the agreement was to hand security responsibility to Afghan forces by the end of 2014, and for foreign troops serving in the coalition, known as the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, to cease combat by then. But that deadline was also hedged.
“I don’t foresee ISAF troops in a combat role beyond 2014, provided of course that the security situation allows us to move into a more supportive role,” he said.
Mr. Obama also confirmed that the American military, which now has about 100,000 troops in Afghanistan, would remain in some form.
“Certainly, our footprint will have been significantly reduced,” he said. “But beyond that, you know, it’s hard to anticipate exactly what is going to be necessary.”
He added that “it is a goal to make sure that we are not still engaged in combat operations of the sort that we’re involved with now.”
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who was in Chile on Saturday, said only a “fraction” of the current allied forces in Afghanistan would be likely to remain past 2014, and they would be “very much focused on the kind of train and advise and assist role that we’re now taking on in Iraq.”
Officials have said that NATO’s withdrawal was contingent on the ability of Afghan forces to take on their new responsibilities.
“2014 is a goal, not a guarantee,” Mark Sedwill, NATO’s top civilian representative in Kabul, said Saturday. Last week he said that poor security in some areas could delay the pullout date, and that Afghanistan could face “eye-watering levels of violence by Western standards.”
On Saturday, he offered a brighter outlook, saying that a 2014 withdrawal was “realistic and we’ve made plans to achieve it, but of course if circumstances agree, it could be sooner.”