Senator: Don't change date for starting Afghanistan troop withdrawal
Open-ended military commitments permit inaction on the part of host governments and reduce the incentive for them to take the lead, Democratic Sen. Carl Levin says.
Senate Armed Services Commmittee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., Friday called the situation in Afghanistan "very mixed," but stressed the importance of sticking to the July 2011 date to begin withdrawing U.S. forces.
During a speech this morning at the Council on Foreign Relations, Levin said the "decisive factor" in winning in Afghanistan is training the Afghan army and putting it in the lead for operations.
"Standing by that July 2011 date is the key to that progress, the crucial incentive for the Afghans to approach their task with urgency," Levin said. "If the date wobbles, so does the sense of urgency."
Echoing the Obama administration's plans, Levin said the size of the troop reductions should be based on the situation on the ground.
"The speed of reductions and the location of reductions, by the way, is going to be based on conditions at the time," Levin said. "I do not have a metric," he added.
Addressing critics of the administration's plan who fear that the July 2011 date encourages the Taliban to wait out the withdrawal of U.S. forces, Levin said that placing Afghans in the lead of operations is the Taliban's "worst nightmare" because Afghans will be more effective than U.S. troops in winning the trust of the people.
"I hope they [the Taliban] do hide and wait, because at the end of their wait they will face a much larger, stronger Afghan force," Levin said. "Time is not on the side of the Taliban unless the Afghan leadership squanders the time between now and July 2011."
Levin pointed to the Vietnam war to illustrate that open-ended military commitments permit inaction on the part of host governments and reduce the incentive for them to take the lead.
Levin acknowledged that Afghan President Hamid Karzai "needs prodding" to serve as commander in chief of his military and make difficult decisions on the use of force. The Afghan people, meanwhile, are becoming disillusioned with a central government they believe is corrupt.
"Sticking to the July 2011 date keeps the pressure on the Karzai government to earn support for a national consensus against the return of Taliban domination by curbing corruption and demonstrating the legitimacy and effectiveness of the Afghan government," he added.
Securing and governing Afghanistan, Levin said, is not an easy task. But he said it would be "far riskier" to signal to Karzai that he had an unlimited amount of time.