Obama signals end of war in Afghanistan with warning to Pakistan

TNN

Washington, 03 May 2012: Air Force One turned into midnight express as US president Barack Obama swept unannounced into Afghanistan on the first anniversary of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden to signal an end to war there ahead of a strenuous election season at home.

 

Obama flew to into Bagram air base outside Kabul late on Tuesday, signed a pact in the dead of the night with Afghan president Hamid Karzai outlining future advisory US role, spoke to American troops in the wee hours of the morning, and made a primetime TV address to an US audience at the crack of dawn Kabul time, before flying back, symbolically shutting down in ten hours a war that has lasted more than a decade.

 

Soon after he left, Kabul erupted in violence even as Taliban announced what it called a spring offensive starting May 3, wire reports said. Terrorists armed with guns, suicide vests and a bomb-laden car attacked a heavily fortified compound used by Westerners in Kabul, killing seven people and wounding more than a dozen.

 

On a militant website, Taliban declared that the new offensive, code-named al Farouq, would target "foreign invaders, their advisors, their contractors, all those who help them militarily and in intelligence."

 

The so-called "invaders," who by Obama’s account came to Afghanistan only because Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida set up base here, would have largely left under a transition the president outlined. But the withdrawal, while more than just symbolic, will also involve continued US role in Afghanistan over the next decade under the strategic accord, including American advisors and trainers, targets Taliban threatened it will aim for.

 

In his ten-minute address to Americans back home gearing up for elections in November, Obama promised that the goal he set to defeat al-Qaida and deny it a chance to rebuild "is now within our reach," enabling a transition that "will complete our mission and end the war in Afghanistan." At the same time, he signalled that the US would not abandon Afghanistan and will remain invested in the country’s security and development for the next decade.

 

The US president also had sharp and peremptory words for Afghanistan’s neighbour Pakistan, whose "strategic depth" policy involving interference in Afghanistan is the cause of much grief to Washington. "I have made it clear to Pakistan," Obama warned grimly, "that it can and should be an equal partner in this process in a way that respects Afghanistan’s sovereignty, interests and democratic institutions." He also added: "In pursuit of a durable peace, America has no designs beyond an end to al-Qaida safe havens and respect for Afghan sovereignty."

 

Implicit in those remarks is advice to Pakistan that it should not seek overlordship of Afghanistan or manipulate who will rule Kabul, while at the same time assuring Islamabad that US is not interested in dismantling Pakistan or its nuclear weapons. Some analysts have suggested Obama is more than just annoyed with Pakistan for being the spoiler in the region.

 

In a review of the Obama visit, former CIA analyst and Heritage Foundation senior fellow Lisa Curtis said the President’s frustration with Pakistan and its lack of cooperation in Afghanistan came through in his remarks. "Islamabad’s practice of relying on violent Islamist proxies in Afghanistan (and India) has backfired badly on Pakistan," she wrote Tuesday, advising US officials to "build on this sentiment by convincing Pakistani leaders that unless they ... force the Taliban to compromise in Afghanistan, Pakistan will suffer from an emboldened Taliban leadership that will project its power back into Pakistan."

 

"Moreover, Pakistan will face increasing isolation and lose credibility with the international community for continuing policies that encourage terrorism and endanger the safety of civilized nations," she added. From Islamabad though, there was little sign of any policy change even as Pakistani analysts gloated at the prospect of US difficulties in drawing down from Afghanistan in the face of continued blockade of Nato supply route.