WASHINGTON, Reuters) – The White House squeezed Afghan President Hamid Karzai yesterday to show more resolve in fighting corruption and said President Barack Obama’s war plan deliberations included an exit strategy for U.S. troops.
Obama, en route to Asia for a weeklong trip, stopped at an air base in Alaska where he told U.S. troops he would give them the strategy and clear mission they deserved in the increasingly unpopular eight-year-old war.
The president is weighing several options for boosting U.S. force levels in Afghanistan, a decision all but certain to escalate America’s involvement to confront a resurgent Taliban and their al Qaeda allies.
“I will not risk your lives unless it is necessary to America’s vital interests. And if it is necessary, the United States of America will have your back,” Obama told the troops.
The president left for Asia amid revelations his own ambassador to Kabul, ex-military commander Karl Eikenberry, had expressed deep concerns about sending in more troops until Karzai’s government improved its performance.
Senior officials said Obama had discussed Eikenberry’s concerns, sent via diplomatic memos, during a war cabinet meeting at the White House where several options were laid out for the president as he revises strategy in Afghanistan.
At the meeting on Wednesday, Obama called for more information on timelines for troop levels and when Afghan security forces would be competent to take over, according to several U.S. officials.
“It’s important to examine not just how we’re going to get folks in but how we’re going to get folks out,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters traveling to Asia.
Obama’s revised strategy is not expected to give a timetable for withdrawal but Washington has made clear it expects Karzai to provide concrete steps on how he will fight corruption and mismanagement.
Gibbs said a successful U.S. strategy was “most dependent on the Afghan government being a proven partner” and that the Obama administration was working on agreements with Karzai’s team over what it needed to do.
“That’s part of his (Obama’s) desire to get a sense of where we are rather than committing to an open-ended conflict,” Gibbs said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates also made this point during a visit to Wisconsin, telling reporters the issue was how best to show resolve while signaling to the Afghans and the American people that it was not an “open-ended commitment.” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she shared concerns raised by a number of leaders about corruption, a lack of transparency and poor governance in Afghanistan.
“Corruption is corrosive in a society,” she told reporters on a trip to the Philippines. “The corruption issue really goes to the heart of whether the people of Afghanistan feel that the government is on their side, is working for them.”
In Kabul, German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg had the same message for Karzai.
