Afghanistan: Barack Obama sets date of July 2011 to begin withdrawal
President Barack Obama has set a target date of July 2011 to bring withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan and handing over responsibility for security to the Afghan forces.
By Alex Spillius in Washington
Published: 8:00AM GMT 02 Dec 2009
For the first time, the president set a timeline on America's military involvement in the country it invaded in October 2001.
The White House hopes that the addition of 30,000 US troops, which will begin almost immediately, combined with the pressure of the new deadline, will spur the government of Hamid Karzai into action.
In a speech televised live across America, Mr Obama said that "these additional American and international troops will allow us to accelerate handing over responsibility to Afghan forces, and allow us to begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011".
He continued: "Just as we have done in Iraq, we will execute this transition responsibly, taking into account conditions on the ground. We will continue to advise and assist Afghanistan's fecurity forces to ensure that they can succeed over the long haul.
"But it will be clear to the Afghan government – and, more importantly, to the Afghan people that they will ultimately be responsible for their own country."
The speech came as it was announced that British and American troops in Afghanistan are to launch a major new onslaught against the Taliban within weeks.
Thousands of soldiers will be deployed to "deliver a punch" to insurgents responsible for attacks in Helmand province.
The move is part of President Barack Obama's plans to increase US troop numbers by 30,000.
He will send 9,000 US marines to fight with British forces in an offensive early in the New Year as the advanced guard of a major surge.
Final preparations for the US marines' departure will begin almost immediately. They are expected to deploy shortly before Christmas for an offensive against Taliban strongholds in the south of the country.
Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said "we're going to get in there quickly" in order to "deliver a punch quickly".
The surge comes after the bloodiest summer for both British and American soldiers and amid declining public support on both sides of the Atlantic.
Ninety nine British service members have died so far in 2009, 10 of them in Operation Panther's Claw, of which 67 died in the six month deployment, which successfully cleared an area north of Lashkar Gah, the province's capital city.
British commanders pressed for an extra 2,000 troops in the spring but the Government has agreed to only 500 regular troops.
Senior defence sources said that the 500 additional British troops from the 1st Bn The Royal Welsh will be used in the attack after they arrive in Helmand within the next fortnight.
A brigade of the Afghan National Army, numbering up to 3,000, may also be sent by Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, to assist.
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, described Mr Obama's announcement as a "very significant" moment in the development of a "full counter-insurgency strategy on both sides of the Afghanistan Pakistan border".
The build-up would bring troop numbers in Helmand to more than 30,000 troops, the number commanders said they needed to pacify the region. In the past, military leaders have complained that a shortage of troops has allowed the Taliban to melt away between one offensive to avoid the next.
Despite having to wait three months for Mr Obama to finish his deliberations on strategy and troop numbers, preparations have been under way at the US Camp Leatherneck adjacent to the British Camp Bastion, to receive the 9,000 extra marines.
British commanders have spoken about "greater synergy" between the two countries and a co-ordinated effort to subdue the Taliban in the coming months.
Chief of the Defence Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup said he was "delighted" with Mr Obama's announcement.
"It's what all of us who have been involved in the operation in Afghanistan have assessed is required if we are to resource a plan to deliver the strategy which we have been holding to for some time now," he said.
He said the US was providing three-quarters of the 40,000 troops Gen McChrystal said were necessary. Britain had provided 1,200 more from the point at which the US general made his assessment.
"They didn't ask for more and we didn't say 'no'," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "I expect the the British contribution to remain centred in Helmand for some time to come at the very least."
According to US sources, the New Year offensive is likely to target Marjeh, a Taliban haven of drug dealing and bomb-making.
The US marines have been keen to move on the city of 50,000 since members of the Islamist militia fled there during the summer's Operation Sword Strike.
When Afghan commandos raided the town backed by US forces in May they made their biggest ever drugs haul. A four-day operation found 17 tons of black tar opium, 74 tons of opium poppy seeds, 400lbs of hashish and 443lbs of heroin.
It also found 27 tons of ammonium nitrate used for making roadside bombs, along with detonators, blasting caps, pressure plates and mortars.
Securing Helmand is one of the three main priorities of Gen Stanley McChrystal, the American who commands Nato forces in Afghanistan. The others are Kandahar city and province, where the Taliban movement started in the mid-1990s, and three other southern and eastern provinces where the insurgency is flourishing.
Mr Gibbs said the troop deployment would be spread over a "much, much shorter period of time" than the one to two year roll-out requested by military planners. Other officials said the president had pushed hard to have all the reinforcements in place by the middle of next year.
"We're in Afghanistan because of the attacks of September 11," Mr Gibbs told US television ahead of the president's televised speech due to be delivered to a prime time audience.
"What the president will announce is an accelerated strategy to go after al-Qaeda and its extremist allies, accelerate the training of Afghan national security forces and eventually give control to the Afghans."
Stressing that the president will show a clear path to an exit for Nato forces, he added: "This will not be nation building. This is not an open-ended commitment."
Mr Miliband said both Britain and the US recognised that military means alone could not bring a satisfactory outcome, he said.
The two major allies in Afghanistan agreed that there must be also be political measures to rid Afghanistan's central and local government of corruption, to encourage insurgents to renounce violence and their support for the Taliban and to improve the economic prospects of ordinary Afghans.
Other major Nato countries who already have a military presence in Afghanistan have however so far refused to commit more combat troops, continuing a long-running dispute between Washington and European capitals that Mr Obama's friendlier style has failed to solve.
So far since Mr Obama came into office Nato leaders have only consented to send 2,000 more personnel to train Afghan security forces.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment