Karzai admits security failure as Afghans mark 10 years since war
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai speaks during the RK Mishra Memorial lecture in New Delhi on October 5, 2011.
KABUL, Friday
Afghan President Hamid Karzai admitted his government and the US-led NATO mission have failed to provide security to Afghans, in an interview with the BBC marking 10 years since the start of war.
“We’ve done terribly badly in providing security to the Afghan people and this is the greatest shortcoming of our government and of our international partners,” he said in an audio clip of the interview released by the BBC.
“What we should do is to provide better, more predictable environment of security to the Afghan citizens, and that the international community and the Afghan government definitely have failed (to do),” he added.
The Afghan president, who took office shortly after the 2001 US-led invasion brought down the Taliban regime, said the Taliban insurgency could not be defeated unless its sanctuaries in neighbouring Pakistan were eliminated.
“That problem, the sanctuaries in Pakistan, will not go away unless the government of Pakistan cooperates with Afghanistan, unless the international community cooperates in a meaningful, effective way to have it removed.”
Afghans looked back on a decade of war that has cost thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars.
Within weeks, the Taliban crumbled under the onslaught of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Its fighters had fled and Afghans poured out of their homes celebrating the collapse of one of the most repressive regimes in modern times.
But as the US turned to Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein, the Taliban began to transform from a rag-tag bunch of renegades into a well-disciplined militia.
Stanley McChrystal, a former commander in Afghanistan delivered a speech on the eve of the anniversary saying the US-led Nato mission was “a little better than” half way to achieving their military goals.
“We didn’t know enough and we still don’t know enough,” he said, adding that the US and its allies had a “frighteningly simplistic view” of recent history, in comments reported by the BBC. (AFP)
