Karzai pleads for Canadians to stay in Afghanistan
GRAEME SMITH
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Kabul Afghanistan risks a descent into chaos if Canadian soldiers withdraw from the country too quickly, President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday, warning of dark consequences for his country and the entire world if the foreign troops abandon the fight against the Taliban before the war is finished.
In an unprecedented move, Mr. Karzai summoned Canadian journalists to his heavily guarded palace in Kabul and spoke passionately about the need for a renewed commitment of troops after the Canadian mandate expires in February of 2009.
He evoked the worst period in his country's recent history, when civil wars killed tens of thousands in the early 1990s, saying a similar disaster could happen again if his military support falters.
"Afghanistan will fall back into anarchy," he said. "Anarchy will bring back safe havens to terrorists, among other things, and terrorists will then hurt you back there in Canada and the United States. Simple as that."
It was an unusually bleak assessment from a leader whose optimism has sometimes led to criticisms that he is too cloistered inside his Kabul fortress. But he finds himself facing a difficult campaign of persuasion in the coming months, as Canada considers the future of its 2,500 troops and Dutch parliamentarians debate the withdrawal of 2,000 soldiers whose commitment ends next year.
Even the current number of troops isn't enough to give the Afghan government the confidence it needs to fight corruption and solve problems of human rights, Mr. Karzai said, because those reforms would force confrontations with armed factions.
"We definitely need the steady, strong backing of the international community, and that has not been there," Mr. Karzai said.
"If there is a concern about corruption, or violation in instances of human rights and law and order, the international community must come forward with the requisite application of force."
Mr. Karzai also described progress in his attempts to negotiate with the Taliban. Initial investigation of the insurgents' calls for peace talks have shown that some Taliban appear to be genuinely interested in dialogue, he said, while some hard-line factions don't seem serious in their demands.
He has rejected two of the main ideas suggested by the insurgents in their public calls for talks, saying he isn't interested in any negotiations preconditioned on the withdrawal of foreign troops and he does not want a power-sharing arrangement that would rewrite the rules of Afghan democracy.
"There is a constitution, there is a way of life," he said. "Let them come and participate [in elections] and win."
But the President seemed keenly aware that his hard line on peace talks will be impossible to maintain if the Canadians and other foreign troops withdraw from the dangerous south. Towns and district centres would fall to the insurgents, he said, and the countryside would resemble the confused battlefield that existed from 1992 to 1996, when factional wars left Afghanistan divided into countless rival fiefs.
"Exactly that will happen, exactly," Mr. Karzai said. "If you leave prematurely, before we can defend ourselves in terms of our own abilities, government, institutions, and all associated factors, Afghanistan will fall back."
Mr. Karzai showed a keen awareness of Canadians' ambivalence about the Afghan mission, even offering a "merci beaucoup" for viewers in Quebec where support is weakest, and he seemed eager to contradict some ideas raised in the Canadian debate.
Canadian officials have said that Afghan forces could be ready to take over the lead role in protecting Kandahar by the time the Canadian commitment expires in 18 months, but the Afghan President bluntly disagreed with that assessment.
"The presence of Canada is needed until Afghanistan is able to defend itself, and that day is not going to be in 2009," he said.
Rather than emphasize the human cost of withdrawal, Mr. Karzai repeatedly came back to the theme of Canadian security relating to the fight against extremism in Afghanistan.
"Leaving Afghanistan alone now will bring back all the evils that were here," he said. "We know they're still around look at the situation in Pakistan, look at the situation in Algeria, the suicide bombs there."
He continued: "You can look around. You can see the enemy is not yet finished, is not yet defeated. Therefore it's our responsibility, all of us, to continue to work to defeat terrorism. And we cannot defeat terrorism unless we secure Afghanistan. If we do not, it will become a base for them again."
Despite his sombre message, the President said he remains optimistic about Afghanistan's overall progress over the past six years. He faces elections next year, and says the country has enjoyed great achievements with the help of foreign donors.
"In comparison to the depth and width of the problems we had six years ago, it's massive, it's significant, and we should all be happy with that."
Dry tour and rations for all!
