WASHINGTON, Aug 17: US troops will stay in Afghanistan and Iraq for three to five years, retired US Army Gen Tommy Franks said on Tuesday.
Gen Franks, who led the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq until his retirement in July last year , said both the Afghan and Iraqi governments would need three to five years to build an administrative structure.
"I believe that it'll take three to five years to get the bureaucracy built _ Afghanistan and Iraq _ and to get the requisite number of security people and bureaucrats trained up to be able to do the work," the general told the Stars and Stripes newspaper. "Three to five years. Might be a little quicker. Won't be any longer," he said.
The general, who served in the US Army for 36 years and is the former head of the Central Command, is currently touring the United States to promote his book, "American Soldier".
In his 590-page book, Gen Franks fondly recalls his meetings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and President Pervez Musharraf and describes them as men who could put their countries on the right track.
He says that the CIA's regional station in Islamabad had identified Mr Karzai as future leader of Afghanistan long before the Sept 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
The CIA, he said, was looking after US interests in Afghanistan during the Taliban reign as Washington did not have an embassy in Kabul. The book gives an interesting insight into how the Americans won over the Northern Alliance.
He said that before opening negotiations with Afghan commander Mohammed Fahim, now defence minister, he rehearsed a fake meeting with one of his aides who acted as an Afghan commander.
When Fahim demanded seven million dollars, Gen Franks walked out of the meeting but later his aide arranged a deal at five million dollars. It was a "soldier to soldier" meeting, says the general while talking about his first meeting with President Musharraf, who briefed him on the regional situation.
In this meeting, President Musharraf said Pakistan was forced to support the Taliban because the Taliban forces had stopped the bloodletting in Afghanistan and also because Pakistan needed peace on its western border so that it could focus on India.
Gen Franks says that former CIA director George Tenet also had briefed him about Pakistan's need for a "strategic depth" in Afghanistan where Islamabad wanted to build communication centres to deal with the Indian threat.
Gen Musharraf also indicated that Pakistan could help the United States negotiate a deal with the Taliban and even in forcing Osama bin Laden and other Taliban leaders out of that country.
In return, Pakistan needed US support for strengthening its defence capabilities and its influence in the region. Gen Franks said that even after 9/11, Pakistan agreed to help on the condition that there would no Indian troops in the coalition forces invading Afghanistan and no Indian soldier steps into Pakistan.
The Americans accepted this condition and Pakistan provided 74 bases to the United States for carrying out operations inside Afghanistan. The general indicated that Pakistan has done much more for helping the United States than the world knows and that Gen Musharraf has never faltered in keeping his pledge to fight terrorists.
The 11th corps of the Pakistan Army captured and killed hundreds of Al Qaeda supporters who were fleeing Afghanistan and even today Pakistani troops are battling Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives in Waziristan, Gen Franks says.
