Afghans back Chicago deal, warn West to keep promises

KABUL: People in Afghanistan were optimistic yesterday about NATO's plan to pull combat troops out of their war-ravaged nation by the end of 2014, but warned Western leaders to stick to aid and security promises.
A Chicago summit meeting of the 28-member bloc, attended also by Afghan President Hamid Karzai and other world leaders, endorsed an exit strategy on Monday that calls for handing control of Afghanistan to its own security forces by the middle of next year.
But it left unanswered questions about how to prevent a slide into chaos and a Taleban resurgence after the pullout.
Despite the sense of combat fatigue in Chicago and frustration that nearly 11 years of military engagement had failed to defeat Taleban, Afghans were surprisingly upbeat. They said the agreement showed Western nations would not abandon their nation after a decade-long war and a massive aid and reconstruction effort.
"I don't think foreign nations will leave us as easily as they say. The international community has spent billions of dollars here now," said university student Tawab, speaking to Reuters.
"The conference has decided that some foreign forces will stay in Afghanistan, so it's like back-up support."
US President Barack Obama declared on Monday that the 10-year war was "effectively over". He visited Kabul to sign a long-term security deal with Karzai on May 2.
Separately, former US secretary of state Colin Powell said yesterday that Afghanistan has been "worth the sacrifice" of the US soldiers who died rooting out Taleban and Al-Qaeda fighters to stabilize the country.
"I think it was worth the sacrifice to give the Afghan people a chance to have a free government that was representative of all the Afghan people and to bring some stability to the country," said Powell.
"Now, two years later, the Afghans are showing that they have more and more capacity. Their forces have been built up. Military and police forces," he told the NBC "Today Show" program.
But he added "you know, we can only do so much and go so far. They have to be in charge of their country," he said.
Powell conceded, however, that he is "not totally satisfied" that peace and stability will continue to reign once foreign troops depart and Kabul is fully in charge of keeping order.
"That is what remains to be seen. I'm not totally satisfied, in fact I'm hardly satisfied with the nature of the regime -- the corruption that exists, and a lot of the other problems that exist," he said one day after a NATO summit in Chicago to charted a path out of the war.
Meanwhile, the US ambassador to Afghanistan, Ryan Crocker, is to leave his post early, the embassy confirmed yesterday. The veteran diplomat, who was appointed to Kabul 10 months ago for a two-year term, previously served as the US envoy to Iraq, Pakistan and Syria.
"Amb Crocker has confirmed with regret that he will be leaving Kabul this summer," the embassy said on its Twitter feed.
No reason was given for Crocker's departure and an embassy official told AFP, "We have nothing further on that at this time."
CBS news, which earlier reported on Crocker's plans, quoted a senior State Department official as saying only that Kabul is "a tough place to serve".
Now aged 62, Crocker was appointed out of retirement in July 2011.
His early departure coincides with that of US ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munter, and reports that US General John Allen is about to become the fourth NATO commander in Afghanistan to leave early, tipped for a job in Europe.