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Triumphant Karzai Meets Bush at White House, Secures U.S. Military Assistance
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| Karzai
speaks at re-opening of Afghanistan Embassy in Washington |
With additional reporting by S.M. Khalid
WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. President George W. Bush pledged Monday that his administration would help train and arm Afghanistan's new police and military forces following talks with interim leader Hamid Karzai at the White House.
The White House, however, declined a request by Karzai to contribute soldiers to an international peacekeeping force being formed to maintain security in the war-torn Central Asian nation.
"Better yet than peacekeepers, which will be there for a while with our help, let's have Afghanistan have her own military," Bush told reporters at a joint press conference with Karzai in the White House Rose Garden. "The United States will continue to be a friend to the Afghan people and all the challenges that lie ahead."
Karzai thanked Bush and the American people for their help and said the U.S.-led operation against terrorism in Afghanistan must go "to the absolute end."
"We will not allow terrorism to return" to Afghanistan, said Karzai. "We must break them out of their caves and their hideouts, we promise to do that," Karzai said, apparently referring to al-Qaeda and Taliban members.
Asked about Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, Karzai said, "We are looking for him. He is a fugitive. If we find him, we'll catch him."
Karzai, who is being afforded all the privileges of a full state visit, said that aid from the U.S. and other nations were vital to Afghanistan's future.
Bush also announced a $50 million installment in U.S. aid to help rebuild the war-torn nation.
"The contribution of financial assistance by the United States and the rest of the world is significant in preventing the return of bad people to Afghanistan or the return of terrorism to Afghanistan," he said.
Karzai also called for the Bush administration to send troops to an international peacekeeping force which is taking shape in Afghanistan following the rout of the Taliban militia and the on-going U.S.-led military campaign against remnants of bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
"The people I've met over the past month, ... almost all of them have asked me to ask the international security forces to go to the other parts of the country," Karzai said on NBC's, "Today" show.
"If we need them at any time to be there in the rest of the country, we will ask for it," he said. "And if the United States can be there as part of that multinational force, it's welcome."
Afghan officials believe troops are needed in the countryside to deal with regional warlords and armed gangs. They also have indicated they want U.S. troops to participate in this effort. So far, the Bush administration has declined to make a commitment to a long-term peacekeeping role, although at least 4,000 U.S. servicemen are currently stationed in Afghanistan.
"The president's philosophy is that the United States should not be overly deployed in peacekeeping around the world. The purpose of the troops should be to fight wars," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
Washington launched air strikes against Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia on Oct. 7 and sent U.S. special forces to aid Afghan opposition troops in toppling the Taliban.
Although some Afghans have called for an end to the U.S. military activities in their country, Karzai has said he fully backs the war on terror.
"We will keep working against them [al-Qaeda] together with the U.S. and other allied forces. That war will go on relentlessly," Karzai said in an interview published on Sunday in the
Washington Post.
Karzai also may seek reassurances that the United States will not abandon Afghanistan as many Afghans feel it did after the Soviets were driven out. Asked if he feared this, Karzai told the
Post: "Not at this point."
A senior administration official said a host of issues were discussed between Bush and Karzai, including the U.S.-led war on terrorism, Afghan security and stability, economic reconstruction, and rebuilding - or in some cases creating - Afghan political and civic institutions.
"We want to build a partnership with the new Afghanistan," said the administration official.
Earlier, at a ceremony outside Afghanistan's embassy in Washington - undergoing renovation after being closed for years - Karzai thanked the United States for its help and called it a thrilling moment as the nation's black-red-and-green flag was raised once again.
"Let's hope that this flag will be there forever, and that the partnership between the American and Afghan people will be forever," the prime minister said.
Karzai, the first Afghan head-of-state to make an official visit to the White House talks in almost 40 years, also met this past weekend in Washington and spoke Sunday at Georgetown University before thousands of members of the Afghan exile community.
"When I became leader, so many people from different parts of Afghanistan came to us, different people, but they had one message," Karzai told the audience "They want a central government, independence and unity for our people. From difficult times, we will live in positive times, productive times."
Karzai, who spoke mostly in Pashtu and Dari, urged his countrymen, especially younger Afghans, to return home and help rebuild the country.
"Without your cooperation, we're not going to make it," he said. "You are the future of our country. Study hard, work hard, make money and bring it to Afghanistan. You are the ones who are trained - the academics, the professionals. Welcome to your country. Come back to your country."
"And if somebody wants to come and be president," he said to laughter and cheers, "she is also welcome."
Earlier Sunday, Karzai attended a prayer service at Masjid Mustapha in northern Virginia. There were hundreds of Afghan-Americans present, no less enthusiastic about their country's changed political outlook than were his listeners at Georgetown hours later.
Seated on a gold and green carpet, the gathering listened intently as Karzai spelled out his message in Afghanistan's two languages.
Before Karzai spoke, the assemblage prayed to God for the success of the democratic process on which their homeland is now embarked.
Karzai was sworn in on Dec. 22 as head of an interim Afghan government that will rule for six months. His administration will be followed by an 18-month transitional government chosen by a
Loya Jirga, or grand council, and then, in theory, by democratic elections.
Last week, Karzai spoke to an international gathering in Japan, appealing to donor countries at an Afghan reconstruction conference to be generous. They pledged $1.8 billion the first year and $4.5 billion over five years.
His trip to Washington was not expected to produce any major financial aid for Afghanistan, which has received a promise of $296 million in U.S. funds as part of the $4.5 billion pledged by the international community.
The Pashtun tribal chief who was catapulted last year from a little-known exile to the leader of his fractious nation will also meet other members in the U.S. government's top echelon on Monday, including Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and possibly Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Tuesday, Karzai will visit Congress, hold a news conference at the National Press Club and meet with financial institutions and aid agencies, and will appear as Bush's honored guest at the State of the Union address Tuesday night.
Meanwhile, Karzai reportedly asked the president to declare that detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, be protected under the Geneva Convention, which is designed to protect prisoners of war, even if they were still classified as unlawful combatants.
Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, anger is growing over the bombing three days ago of a Taliban compound in Hazar Qadam, north of Kandahar.
Washington insists the raid killed 15 al-Qaeda fighters, but village elders say the 15 had been sent to the compound by a pro-government official to negotiate the surrender of weapons from Taliban hideouts.
The U.S. continues to drop bombs across eastern Afghanistan in an effort to wipe out the last of the Taliban.
But protests are growing, as villagers say it is innocent civilians who are dying.
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