Afghan pullout likely after 2011: US Gen
Foreign Desk Report

NEW YORK—The Afghan Army should be able to secure most of Afghanistan by 2011, allowing international forces to start withdrawing, the U.S. commander of the NATO-led force in the war-torn country, Gen. Dan K. McNeill, says.
“By about 2011 there is going to be some pretty good capacity in the Afghan National Army,” he was quoted as saying in an interview with a leading American newspaper published on Monday.
“It will take them a few more years to get their air transport and air support platforms online, but they should be covering a lot of battle space by some time in 2011, in my view,” he told The New York Times in the Kabul headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
By then, barring any cataclysm, the countries contributing troops to the international force could look at whether such a large international force was still desirable, General McNeill said. “I think you begin to get to a juncture and say,’Probably not, maybe we should be starting to change the way this force works’,” he said.
The issue has been important to the discussion within NATO about its mission in Afghanistan, The Times pointed out. Some members of NATO, which has taken over much of the security for the country, have been reluctant to send troops, or to allow their troops to operate in areas where the insurgency is active.
General McNeill said that the United Nations-mandated force, which includes 47,000 troops from 40 countries, would be better named the Interim Security Assistance Force, in recognition of its temporary role until Afghan forces can take over.
The general, who will complete his second tour in Afghanistan this summer - he commanded American forces from 2002 to 2003 - told The Times that Afghan forces had already effectively been managing the security for Kabul, for the last year, albeit with NATO support. He also expressed confidence that the Afghans would be able to secure the country well enough for the country to hold presidential elections in September 2009.
The long-term stability of Afghanistan also depends on the good will and help of all its neighbours, not just Pakistan, he said. “All neighbours have to be helpful, and there are quite a few neighbours around here,” he said.
NATO forces must improve their training to avoid roadside bombs, which have increased significantly in recent months, he said. But he said that the Afghan forces were the best protection against suicide bombers, since the bombers were usually strangers, and Afghans were likely to spot strangers much more quickly than foreign soldiers could.
Development of a national police force is critical to success in countering the insurgency, he said, adding that despite generous support from the United States Congress for police training, “The rate of progress is not fast enough for any of us.”
Poor security and the lack of good governance are the biggest challenges facing Afghanistan, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on Monday. More than six years after U.S.-led and Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban, violence has surged in Afghanistan and Western politicians and think-tanks have this year warned the country risks becoming a failed state and sliding into anarchy.
A major donors’ conference on Afghanistan planned in France for June will focus on the issues of security and governance, Solana said. He said he discussed the two issues with President Hamid Karzai, who has led Afghanistan since the Taliban’s 2001 ouster and relies on Western funds for 90 percent of his budget.
“When we talk about challenges, we have to talk about difficulties that prevent everything that is done ... one is security and that is important ... for the development of the country,” Solana told a joint news conference with Karzai. “The second thing is governance. The ownership of the process belongs to the country ... but together with ownership comes accountability, comes responsibility and comes good governance.”
Karzai is under fire at home and in some Western capitals for failing to crack down on endemic corruption, not removing ineffective and corrupt officials and allowing warlords to extend their influence. The EU is Afghanistan’s second largest donor after the United States. Some $14 billion dollars has been pledged by donors to Afghanistan at several previous international conferences held since 2001, Afghan officials said. But Karzai’s government has control of only one-third of the money that has been pledged or spent, the officials said. Karzai said his government was ready to be held to account for any aid channeled through it.