WASHINGTON: US Defence Secretary Leon E. Panetta has said that US forces will end their combat mission in Afghanistan by mid-2013, taking on the role of advising and assisting Afghan security forces.
But in the same statement, Mr Panetta also said that President Barack Obama had made it clear that US troops would have an enduring presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014 — in counter-terrorism and “train, advise and assist” roles.
No final decisions have been made about exact numbers or missions after 2014, he added.
Talking to reporters before his departure for Brussels to attend a Nato conference, Mr Panetta said the US-led military mission in Afghanistan turned a corner in 2011 with lower levels of violence, a sustained effort targeting Taliban leaders and an Afghan army that “stepped up to the challenge” of assuming security in parts of the country.
“About 50 per cent of the population of Afghanistan will now be under Afghan governance and security,” he said. “That’s an important step.”
Next year would be even more critical, Mr Panetta noted, as Afghan forces took responsibility for the final, tougher areas in Afghanistan, while 2014 would involve “consolidating the transition, making sure those gains are, in fact, held”.
Mr Panetta’s announcement comes on the heels of a leaked Nato report that says the Taliban, allegedly backed by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, remain a determined force capable of staging a comeback. At the conference in Brussels,Mr Panetta said, Nato defence ministers would discuss carrying through the strategy agreed upon at the alliance’s November 2010 summit in Portugal.
The US media noted that the decision to end the combat role established a milestone for leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, who in Lisbon in 2010 had called for transferring security responsibility nationwide to Afghan forces by the end of 2014. The US media noted that the timetable might help resolve a rift in Nato that opened last week when French President Nicolas Sarkozy said his nation would withdraw its troops a year earlier than the goal set in Lisbon. Mr Panetta signalled on Wednesday that he would try to herd France back in line.
He said he would stress during this week’s Nato defence ministers conference that ongoing coalition commitment was essential to success in Afghanistan and he would seek one billion euros in funding for Afghan army and police forces.
Mr Panetta said he would like to expand the current funding pool to include more nations, such as Arab countries, Japan and South Korea.
“The key is to have a sufficient and sustainable [Afghan] force that can be there for the future,” he said.
“One of the things we’ll be discussing is the size that force should be, but a lot of that is going to be dependent on the funds.”
Under a White House plan, 10,000 US service members were withdrawn from Afghanistan in 2011 and 23,000 more are scheduled to come out by September. There are 91,000 US troops now in Afghanistan. The coalition plans to remove most forces by the end of 2014.
The shift from a combat mission to an advisory role does not mean that US forces will not be exposed to fighting. Mr Panetta said that US forces would remain “combat ready”.
“For the United States, the war is coming to an end. Its critical goals have been achieved. Osama bin Laden is dead. Al Qaeda there is virtually dead. There are no vital interests to justify further great sacrifices. And now it’s time to act upon this reality and bring the heroes home, writes Leslie H. Gelb of the US Council on Foreign Relations at the Daily Beast.
“The US report belies the notion that the policy of assassinating mid-level Taliban commanders is having any lasting effect on an organisation which retains the ability to selectively moderate its violence in order to encourage Nato forces to leavefaster,” observes the Guardian newspaper.