WASHINGTON: To some, it looks like the US administration is back-pedaling after President Barack Obama’s speech on Tuesday. To others, it looks like a mere clarification of the president’s message.
Obama’s speech on the AfPak region touched a nerve in Afghanistan, where large segments of the population remain deeply scarred by the US decision to disengage soon after the Soviet Union pulled out its troops in 1989.
More than eight years after the initial US invasion, the president announced his intention to deploy 33,000 more troops to Afghanistan to end the conflict there and indicated the United States would begin to withdraw from that country in July 2011.
“The United States has no intention of leaving Afghanistan in the near future, certainly not in 2011,” US National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones told reporters at a briefing for foreign press on Friday when asked about President Obama’s recent statement on withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. “The president’s decision did not mean that we will leave in 2011. It just means that that will be a transition point where we will begin to pull some of our forces back and turn over some of the responsibilities to the Afghan themselves,” Jones said at the Washington-based Foreign Press Center.
According to Gen. Jones, what Obama actually said was that the US troops “will begin to come home” after 18 months. Since then, the top brass in his administration have centered on the nuance between “will” and “will begin to.”
“It’s very important to use the right words where this is concerned,” he chided. “The words ‘US troops will leave in 2011’ are inaccurate.” “The president has said that by July of 2011 we expect to have achieved a certain degree of success along the areas.”
A transition, he added, “will be when the Afghans will be able to take — start to begin to take control of more of their own affairs, especially in the security aspect of things. And then we will begin that transition, and that is very clear.”
Gen. Jones also surprised reporters by his frankness when journalists from the Arabian Gulf, Canada and Turkey asked what the US would like their governments to do in Afghanistan. “Stay engaged,” the general pleaded.
Gen. Jones and Defense Secretary Robert Gates have been highly visible since Obama’s speech; they are seeking to assure anxious Afghan and Pakistani leaders that despite the July 2011 dateline, the region will not be abandoned.
Even Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top US and NATO commander, insisted that the US will ensure Afghan forces are ready to provide security before there are any meaningful reductions in the US presence there. Gen. Jones certainly has changed his tune. Six months ago he famously warned top brass against asking the president for troop reinforcements in Afghanistan.
