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16 January 2003

Wolfowitz, Karzai Discuss Accelerating Afghan Military Training

(Military training, reconstruction are keys to Afghan stability,
Wolfowitz says) (1570)
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz has met Afghan President Hamid
Karzai in Kabul to review progress in training the Afghan national
army and to discuss ways to accelerate the training.
Speaking to reporters in Kabul January 15 after meeting with Karzai,
Wolfowitz said the development of an effective Afghan national army
and economic reconstruction are the two pillars of long-term stability
in Afghanistan.
Training Afghanistan's national army is "probably the key element in
developing long-term security -- or at least on the security side of
developing long-term security for this country," he said. "Economic
reconstruction is, I would say, the other pillar of long-term
stability and is every bit as important as the military side."
Meeting reporters alongside Wolfowitz, Afghan Foreign Minister
Abdullah Abdullah expressed the gratitude of the Afghan people for the
long-term U.S. commitment to stabilize and reconstruct Afghanistan.
Answering a question about Iraq, Wolfowitz said the United States is
sharing intelligence with U.N. inspectors who are working to uncover
Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
The deputy defense secretary said he came to Afghanistan to convey the
message that Iraq is not the only major concern in the world and the
United States does "not want to lose sight of the work that needs to
be done here in Afghanistan."
Wolfowitz said the United States has refrained from deploying a
massive presence in Afghanistan in order to keep the United States
from becoming unwelcome in the eyes of the Afghan people.
"[I]t's been a fundamental strategic principle from the beginning to,
I guess I would say, learn some lessons from history, and not come in
here with a massive foreign presence and make ourselves unwelcome in a
hurry," Wolfowitz said. He said the U.S. forces are "big enough to do
the job, but no bigger than necessary."
Wolfowitz said security in Afghanistan is being established by the
deployment of Afghan national army and U.S. military Provincial
Reconstruction Teams to areas outside Kabul.
Following is the transcript of Wolfowitz's briefing:
(begin transcript)
U.S. Department of Defense News Briefing
Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz
January 15, 2003
(Media availability with Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah,
The Palace, Kabul, Afghanistan)
Wolfowitz: I just had a very productive discussion with President
Karzai, covering a wide range of issues -- particularly, obviously,
those issues that fall within the concerns of the Department of
Defense. I think most important, we talked about the progress that's
been made in training the Afghan national army and the efforts we'd
like to make together to accelerate that training. It's clearly
probably the key element in developing long-term security -- or at
least on the security side of developing long-term security for this
country. Economic reconstruction is, I would say, the other pillar of
long-term stability and is every bit as important as the military
side.
I am struck at how much progress this country has made since I was
here last July. Of course, if you take it back two years to the time
the Taliban was here, it's just incomparable. But we don't make
progress by telling ourselves how wonderful we've done. We only make
progress by continuing to move forward and there's still a great deal
more work to be done. But it's encouraging to see how successful our
Afghan colleagues have been and we're delighted to have this close
partnership.
Abdullah: Thank you, Mr. Wolfowitz. On behalf of the United States
government and the people of the United States, once again we have
shown President Karzai, our government, of the continued support from
the United States on the process of stability in Afghanistan, peace
building, nation building, and the process of reconstruction of
Afghanistan, which is a long-term commitment from the United States.
That was one of the issues which we appreciate from our side. There is
discussion all about different aspects of our partnership in the
military security, humanitarian reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan
and throughout. We appreciate, we are grateful for the role that the
United States has played so far. It has been crucial for our people.
Our people as whole appreciate that role and I think that together we
can make a much better situation in Afghanistan and for peace and
stability throughout the world.
Wolfowitz: Time for a few questions.
Q: To what extent is the United States sharing its intelligence with
the U.N.'s weapons inspectors to help find that smoking gun? And if
you are sharing that intelligence, why is it taking so long to find.
If you're not sharing it, why aren't you?
Wolfowitz: We're sharing a lot of intelligence with United Nations
Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission and with the
International Atomic Energy Agency. But to be honest, I came here
today to focus on issues of Afghanistan. And, in fact, to make it
clear to President Karzai and everyone else I'm meeting with that we
continue to pay a lot of attention to this country, moving forward in
this country. Iraq is obviously a major concern for the United States,
but it's not our only major concern in the world and we do not want to
lose sight of the work that needs to be done here in Afghanistan.
Q: How is the war in Iraq likely to affect American troop deployments
in Afghanistan?
Wolfowitz: We are regulating our deployments here based on the needs
here in this country, and it's been a fundamental strategic principle
from the beginning to, I guess I would say, learn some lessons from
history, and not come in here with a massive foreign presence and make
ourselves unwelcome in a hurry. I think part of the brilliance, if I
might say, of Gen. Franks' plan from the beginning was to keep the
American footprint small -- to be big enough to do the job, but no
bigger than necessary, and we have more than adequate forces to do
what's necessary.
Q: How long do you expect this number of troops to be deployed in
Afghanistan -- about 8,000 men?
Wolfowitz: I think it's a big mistake to try to predict the future. It
took a long time to bring Afghanistan to the point that it was at. I
think in 1966 someone showed me the statistic Afghanistan ranked 169
of 174 countries in the world in the U.N. index of human development.
That's what 25 years of invasion and civil war did to this place. You
can see it visually all around. But you also see visually the progress
that's being made in the city as people rebuild. I visited this
women's hospital today, and I'm told by March 1st it's going to be
back and functioning. There is a lot of work to do and I would not
want to predict when it will end.
But in answer your earlier question, we have the military capability
we need to sustain both our continuing operations and what will
increasingly be an emphasis on reconstruction and stability.
Q: On that note, the U.S. military's efforts to concentrate on
reconstruction has come under criticism recently by U.N. and aid
agencies that the lines are blurring between combatants and aid
workers, and that we distract the U.S. military from providing
security. What do you have to say to that?
Wolfowitz: Whatever you do, somebody wants you to do something a
little bit different. We've been hearing for a long time from some of
the same groups you mention the need for us to have more of a presence
outside of Kabul, to establish security they can work in. I think
we've come up with what I believe are two crucial pieces of the
solution. One is to train the Afghan National Army and we saw an
exercise today -- a very impressive demonstration and a live fire
exercise by the second battalion of the Afghan National Army. Two
companies of the third battalion that has finished training are now
deployed to Gardez and the reports we get back from Gardez are that
that deployment has been very successful. Excuse me, to Orgun. The
Afghan National Army is deployed to Orgun. Gardez is where we've
deployed the first of these Provincial Reconstruction Teams, and as
you correctly say, some people are happy with our presence. Some
people say, go away, we don't need you around. I think what we're
going to find over time is that, as people understand how we operate,
that this is going to be a success. But it's still an experiment.
We're going to send another Provincial Reconstruction Team to
(inaudible) and after that to Konduz and that will give us a time to
evaluate how the whole process is working.
Q. What is the U.S. military policy in regards to the Afghan-Pakistani
border? Are U.S. forces allowed in a chase in their hunt for Taliban
remnants to go across the border or not?
Wolfowitz: The basic situation there is one of close cooperation
between the U.S. and the government of Pakistan. Neither of us want to
see that border area become a sanctuary for terrorists. We work
closely and cooperatively and I think that's the best way to work at
it. I think we have time for about one more question.
(end transcript)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)