Afghan envoy flays West's failure to win war

Washington: Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States attacked Western governments fighting in and providing billions in aid to his country, saying that those who claim the international community is not winning the war against extremists there "should know that they never fully tried".

"We never asked to be the 51st state," Ambassador Said Jawad said, a reference to a suggestion last month by Senator John Kerry that the United States should concentrate on "realistic goals" and its "original mission" of counterinsurgency in Afghanistan. "To suggest that Afghans do not deserve peace, pluralism and human rights is wrong and racist," Jawad said.

He said negotiations with the Taliban should be conducted by the Kabul government and should be withheld until it was in a "position of strength".

President Obama, in a New York Times interview last week, echoed numerous administration and US military officials in suggesting that the United States seek negotiations with "reconcilable" Taliban elements. Obama also said that the United States and Nato were not winning the war in Afghanistan and spoke favourably of US military plans to bolster Afghan tribal forces to participate in the war against extremists - a policy seen as successful in Iraq and being tried in pilot programs in Afghanistan. Jawad said on Wednesday that such plans "will not work".

Jawad's remarks, in an address on Wednesday night at Harvard University, were a forceful public expression of issues privately raised here last month with the Obama administration by a top-level national security delegation from President Hamid Karzai's government. Jawad accused those aiding Afghanistan of "total negligence" in building the Afghan police force and judicial system, "under-investment" in the national army, and providing "meagre resources" for civilian services.

US expenditures in Afghanistan have totalled more than $173 billion (Dh634.93 billion) since 2001, with an additional $35 billion spent in reconstruction aid. US military deaths total more than 660, with 431 Nato troops killed. Many of Jawad's complaints echo assessments made by the Obama ad ministration.

- Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service