Remarks on U.S. Strategy by Ambassador Eikenberry at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

December 17, 2009

“Afghanistan and the United States: A Long-Term Partnership”

Salaam Alekum, and good morning.  Senior Advisor to the Foreign Minister Davood Marodian, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,

I am delighted at the opportunity to speak today about the United States’ commitment to Afghanistan.  My friend, Minister Spanta and I had the pleasure of travelling together yesterday to his home town to make history.  We signed the lease on the new U.S. Consulate in Herat.  And we did this not just for the pleasure of visiting one of the most bustling cities of your scenic country, but also to demonstrate President Obama’s message to the people of Afghanistan and the region:  The United States has a long-term partnership with Afghanistan. Not only in security, but in the full range of bilateral relations.  Throughout new consulates in Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif, as through our Embassy in Kabul and our Provincial Reconstruction Teams, we are deepening our long-term relationship in support of that partnership.  And the purpose of that partnership is to realize our shared ambition for peace, justice and economic livelihood for all Afghans.

Earlier this month, President Obama gave a historic speech outlining his decision to send 30,000 more American soldiers on an accelerated timetable to help Afghan soldiers and police defeat the enemies of peace in Afghanistan.  These are the enemies who only this week cowardly murdered innocent Afghan men, women, and children on the streets of Kabul and in Gardez.   The additional American soldiers will begin arriving very soon, before the end of this year.  And more American civilian development experts are already streaming in to Afghanistan to help Afghans generate jobs, bigger crops, better roads, better health and education, and better government services, including justice.   At the same time we are seeing Afghanistan’s many other friends and partners in the international community, many of them are present here today; make pledges of additional development assistance, more troops, or both, in some cases.

In his speech just two weeks ago, President Obama laid out a vision of an enduring American- Afghan relationship, grounded in mutual respect and common purpose. My friends, it is that vision I wish to discuss with you here today.

As you may know, I have just returned from Washington D.C., where together with General McCrystal, I met with President Obama and testified before Congress over three days about the situation in Afghanistan and the way ahead. 
While I was in Washington D.C., I also listened very carefully to the views of our Congress. After eight years of assistance to Afghanistan, many Americans and many Members of Congress are impatient to see results in the near term here, just as many Afghan citizens are.
I came away from my meetings in Washington with the firm conviction that fundamental support for assisting Afghanistan does remain strong--and will remain so--as long as there is measurable progress on the agenda which we share.  And, with the clear-eyed realism about the cruelty of the enemy we face together, I also found confidence in our armed forces cooperation with yours and with our allies, as well as confidence in the strength of the Afghan people.

Our additional military commitment is aimed at breaking the momentum of the insurgency, accelerating and bringing security and peace to more Afghans by improving the training of the Afghan National Army and Police, and bringing security and peace to more of Afghanistan. We are also refocusing our development assistance, with the goal of increasing employment and assisting local and national public servants in providing essential government services in areas of greatest insecurity.  In addition, we are intensifying our efforts to deal with the problem of terrorist and insurgent sanctuaries in Pakistan.

We trust that our Afghan partners will recognize that these decisions represent a deepening of our commitment to achieving success in Afghanistan – not an “exit strategy” as some critics have said. But President Obama was also clear that, in the eighth year of our presence in Afghanistan, the United States expects the Afghan government to uphold the people’s sense of national pride and sovereign responsibility for their future.  We look to the Afghan Government, therefore, to urgently and effectively take specific actions in the key areas of security, governance and economic development. We do recognize that dealing with the problems born from three decades of violent conflict; problems such as corruption, poverty, disease, and injustice.  Addressing such problems will not be easy.

As your Government and private citizens rise to such challenges, let me stress that the United States will be working with equal urgency to help us together to achieve progress.  Now is the time for all of us to act, and to act together. We are not likely to get an opportunity like this again.
The element of the President’s plan that has received the most attention in recent weeks was his announcement that American combat forces will begin to return home to the United States from Afghanistan in July 2011.  I would like to make three points about this element of our combined strategy.

The first point is that this is not a deadline, despite what some in both the United States and Afghanistan have said. Our troops will begin a gradual and responsible transition in 2011, taking firmly into account the conditions on the ground and Afghanistan’s ability to handle its security requirements. All the while we will maintain our long-term security relationship on the basis of shared interests and values, just as we do with other nations.

The second point was the main thrust of President Obama’s speech.  Before our force levels begin to decline, U.S. and other NATO-ISAF troops will powerfully increase their presence, in order to fight alongside Afghan forces until the army and police of Afghanistan are able to handle the security threats they face on their own.  If the enemies of the Afghan people believe they will have a restful period before July 2011 or after, this is a very serious miscalculation. 

Third, our military commitment will not end or decline even as our combat forces gradually turn over deep responsibility for protecting the Afghan people to the sons -- and daughters -- of Afghanistan.  As President Obama said, “We will continue to advise and assist Afghanistan’s security forces to ensure that they can succeed over the long haul.”
President Karzai has laid out a timetable for the Afghan army and police to take over lead responsibility for security in key areas within three years and for the entire country within five years.  This is a timetable the United States believes is realistic and is committed to supporting.
We know that Afghanistan also needs development as well as security assistance for years to come.  We will provide that assistance within a framework of a strategic and economic partnership, the kind of partnership we have with other important friends throughout the world.  (And as our enemies can see, those partnerships have only grown stronger and more durable since they attacked us, from Afghanistan on September 11, 2001.)

President Obama has ordered us to accelerate our efforts to assist the Afghan government in building capacity in key ministries, providing key services, and promoting job creation and economic development.  This requires extending Afghan government presence into districts and villages where the violence today is the worst. Our focus in the coming 12 to 18 months will be on assisting the Afghan government in developing the institutions and capabilities at the national and sub-national level necessary to exercise its full sovereignty throughout the country. 

As I mentioned at the beginning, the leases for new U.S. consulates in Herat and Mazar-I-Sharif signify our commitment to remain engaged with the Afghan people throughout the country, in every region.
Over the next year, you will see an expansion of our civilian effort, with hundreds more development specialists arriving to work with key ministries in Kabul and around the country, as more areas become secure.

With our assistance and that of our allies, Afghanistan is steadily building law enforcement institutions to fight corruption, organized crime and drug trafficking. Our support for the Afghan Major Crimes Task Force, the Attorney General’s Anti-Corruption Unit, and the Counter-Narcotics Justice Task Force will help build a more just Afghan society and provide a sustainable basis for long-term security.

In the area of development, the United States alone will spend over $3 billion in Afghanistan this year, channeling it through Afghan institutions where possible, and working across a variety of sectors. We will concentrate on agriculture and other key sectors of the economy. Rebuilding the farm economy is critical to provide jobs and income to the 80-85 percent of the population of Afghanistan that depends on agriculture for their livelihoods while reducing the pool of poor, unemployed men who are most vulnerable to the recruiters of extremism and violence. In the next year, cash-for-work programs funded by the American people will repair vital farm-to-market roads, marketing centers and irrigation infrastructure, while generating tens of thousands of seasonal jobs.  We are also investing in water management, electrification and other large-scale projects that will produce sustainable, long-term development.  During just the next year we will help train over 16, 000 civil servants, 10,000 health workers, and 60,000 teachers.

I do not wish to minimize the enormity of the task before us. The problems of Afghanistan remain substantial, and as we advance toward our shared goals of peace, justice, and economic livelihood, we will likely face setbacks and reversals in the coming years.  But together we face all the challenges with confidence and strength in the long-term partnership which we offer to the Afghan people.   We therefore welcome President Karzai’s commitment, in his inaugural address, to a series of important reforms that would further strengthen Afghanistan’s government, her people, and importantly the bonds between them.

As I close my remarks this morning, I would like to leave you with this thought: I have served the cause of Afghan-American friendship in one capacity or another for the last eight years.  Never in that time have I felt as much optimism as I do today that success is within our reach.

Why do I say this? There is greater consensus about the way forward among all partners involved than ever before. There are more American and Allied resources than ever before—with more on the way as President Obama has made defeating the enemies of peace in Afghanistan and Pakistan our top priority in foreign affairs. The U.S. commitment to Afghanistan is strong, and our partnership is deep and is growing.  We must seize this moment, for the future of Afghanistan and her neighbors, for the future of the United States, and for the futures of all those who involved in this effort.  And I know that we will.

Thank you.