+];tile=2;ord=12345?) Jones: July 2011 a guide, not 'a cliff'
The July 2011 date is not "a cliff" for withdrawing troops in Afghanistan, but rather a "guide slope" or "ramp" in transitioning security responsibilities to Afghans, President Obama's national security adviser James L. Jones said Sunday.
"2011 is not a cliff, it's a ramp," Jones said on CNN's "State of the Union." "And it's when the effects of this increase will be, by all accounts, according to our military commanders and our senior civilians, where we will be able to see very, very visible progress and we'll be able to make a shift."
Despite reports that the White House says the date is "locked in" as the beginning of troop withdrawal, Jones, along with other officials including Defense secretary Robert M. Gates, are communicating a fluid strategy depending on the success of the initial blast of troops.
"We have strategic interests in South Asia that should not be measured in terms of finite times," Jones said. "We have -- we're going to be in the region for a long time. We want it to be -- we want this relationship to be, as we have with all struggling democracies, we want to be helpful. We want to transition from more of a purely military relationship to a civilian relationship."
Jones praised Afghan President Hamid Karzai's stated goal of Afghans taking complete control of their country within five years.
"The important thing is that after eight years now, we get on with this," Jones said. "We've had five years in his first administration. We can do much better, and I think there's more focus and more sense of purpose now than ever before. The status quo is clearly not working."
Jones said that the addition of at least 7,000 more NATO troops in Afghanistan, as well as 4,000 to 5,000 Afghans, will allow U.S. forces to concentrate on the crucial border regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"We have other forces that are working in other parts of the country," Jones explained. "And that will allow us to move our forces back towards the border regions, where really the most important struggle that we're going to have is to make sure that on the Pakistani side of the border, that we eliminate the safe havens."
Jones answered critics that question committing more than 100,000 troops to an Afghanistan that, according to reports, holds fewer than 100 al-Qaeda members and around 20,000 members of the Taliban.
"When you're talking about the number of troops that we're trying to put in there, some of them are support personnel, some of them are training, some of them are mentors. It's not all combat troops," Jones said, repeating the goal of ensuring that al-Qaeda had no safe haven in Afghanistan.
One comparison Jones said the administration hopes to see between this surge in Afghanistan and that of Iraq in early 2007 is that of citizens taking control of their own communities, as Iraqis in the Anbar province did at the time of the Iraq surge.
"We are looking for Afghans, as a result of this renewed commitment for the next two years, to also understand that this is their moment, this is their time to coalesce around an opportunity that they have to make their country what they wish it to be," he said.
Jones also expressed hope that Iran will bend on negotiations over their nuclear capabilities before the end of the year.
"The door is still open, but, unfortunately, the picture Iran is painting is not a good one," Jones said. "But we are still open to negotiations. The IAEA is still working feverishly to try to bring this about. What's on the table is very logical, very fair, very reasonable. And if Iran wanted to signal to the world that it wishes to participate more fully in the family of nations, this is a very, very good way for them to do this."
Feinstein, Kyl see careful way forward in Afghanistan Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) stated their support for President Obama's strategy in Afghanistan, yet they disagreed on how committed the president is in staying vigilant beyond July 2011, the stated goal for U.S. troops to begin a drawdown.
"The president has said we're there to win," Feinstein said. "And so if we're there to win, let's have a strategy and the tactics to go with the strategy to win. This surge enables that. It has worked before; it has a chance of working now."
Feinstein went on to highlight the many factors that will determine a workable transition to Afghan control, such as cooperation from the Afghan government, economic development and successful training of Afghan military forces.
Kyl said any stated date is a clear communication of wavering support for the effort and a deplete will, which is important to Afghans and Pakistanis alike.
"They (Pakistan) have sided with us ... I believe, on the assumption that we're going to be there to stay," he said. "So our commitment to support them and to support the Afghanis really needs to be a firm one that they believe in. And, of course, that's important for our NATO allies, as well."
The pace of training the Afghan army may be the most important plank of the next 18 months, Feinstein said.
"The precise amount of time is hard," the senator said. "It took us a long time to train up the Iraq army and police, and a lot of lessons were learned in so doing. I think if those lessons can be applied to Afghanistan, yes, we have a chance of doing it."
Kyl agreed, adding trust in President Karzai to the mix of tenuous factors in Afghanistan.
"He's a very charismatic and very capable leader," Kyl said. "If he commits himself to the goals that both he and the president have talked about here, I -- I believe he can be successful, but he's got to commit himself to those goals, and there's no question that there is corruption within his administration and, some assert, within his family."
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