By Ravi Bhatia – Talk Radio News Service

Lisa Curtis, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C., told Talk Radio News Service Monday that it would be a mistake for the United States to scale back its military efforts in Afghanistan after Hamid Karzai was declared President for another term by Afghanistan’s election commission.

“The whole election debacle was a setback for international efforts in Afghanistan,” Curtis said in a telephone interview. “That said, U.S stakes in the region are far too high to allow the imperfect election to cause us to think about scaling back the mission there.”

Karzai’s competitor, Abdullah Abdullah, dropped out of the race Sunday, citing the risk of voter fraud.

General Stanley McChrystal has requested 44,000 more troops in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama is expected to adopt a military strategy in the coming weeks.

Lisa Curtis, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., says that she learned from NATO commanders in Afghanistan that they do not have enough resources in Afghanistan to win the war, and that the war strategy has been successful in regions supplied with enough troops. (0:30)

 

 Standard Podcast [0:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Lisa Curtis, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C., says that the confirmation of controversial Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai’s re-election Monday leaves the United States with “no choice” but to deal with Karzai’s alleged corruption and help him “improve his record.” (0:19)

 

 Standard Podcast [0:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Lisa Curtis, Senior Fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C., says that Afghan presidential hopeful Abdullah Abdullah dropped out of the run-off election because he must have realized from the first round of the presidential race in August that current President Hamid Karzai would win “in any case.” (0:17)

 

 Standard Podcast [0:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Lisa Curtis, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C., says that the United States should urge Afghan President Hamid Karzai to reign in corruption and establish a stronger cabinet.

Karzai was declared President by Afghanistan’s election commission Monday after his competitor, Abdullah Abdullah, dropped out of the race citing risk of voter fraud. (0:32)

 

 Standard Podcast [0:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Lisa Curtis, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C., says it would be a mistake for the United States to scale back its military efforts in Afghanistan. (0:28)

 

 Standard Podcast [0:28m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Richard Holbrooke, the State Department’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, is one of the many international figures keeping a close watch on the political situation in Afghanistan in the lead up to the country’s presidential election, but concedes that despite attempts to ensure legitimacy, the election results will not satisfy everybody.

“Will there be challenges in this election? There are in every other democracy. I think we should assume those,” Holbrooke said Wednesday during a panel discussion with his interagency task force.

“Holding an election in a war time situation is always difficult, holding one when the enemy said it was going to disrupt it is even more difficult,” Holbrooke said.

While Afghan President Hamid Karzai sought to hold elections in April, in accordance to the country’s constitution, an election commission moved the date to August 20th to prepare for security, budgetary, and technical concerns. 38 presidential candidates are currently running.

The special representative urged patience following the polls’ closing, explaining that it will take time to determine the winner.

“We aren’t going to know on the evening of August 20th who won. CNN is not going to call this election,” Holbrooke said. “There will be disputes as there are in American elections.”

While Afghanistan’s election commission would likely have an important role in declaring the election legitimate, Holbrooke stressed the importance of the media in analyzing the the results.

“You take the three most obvious examples [of contested elections]: Iran, Kenya, and Zimbabwe. No one knows what actually happened there. What you know is what you think you know, thanks to the media.”

Holbrooke touched upon the larger focus of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, and Although the representative did not give a clear definition on what factors would signal success in Afghanistan from an American perspective, he promised “we will know it when we see it.”

By Kayleigh Harvey – Talk Radio News Service

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) welcomed the President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai to the U.S. Capitol today for a meeting with the bi-partisan leadership of the House of Representatives.
Speaker Pelosi said: “The relationship between the United States and Afghanistan began as one of importance to our country and it continues to be so.”

 

 Standard Podcast [1:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Daniel Markey, senior fellow of India, Pakistan, and South Asia, says that recent discussions regarding a reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Taliban is unlikely (0:31).

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

While Stephen Biddle, Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) senior fellow of defense policy, believes the situation in Afghanistan is better on the ground than it has been portrayed in the U.S., he holds concern over the country’s ability to achieve its long term goal of creating a large, sustainable Afghan security force capable of protecting the population and suffocating insurgency.

“That recipe would work if there was a plausible chance that the Afghan economy could support the kind of A security forces that will be necessary in order to secure the population and I can’t see how they will ever be able to do that,” said Biddle during a telephone CFR conference with Daniel Markey, senior fellow of India, Pakistan, and South Asia on the two senior fellows’ week-long visit to Afghanistan.

Biddle discussed the importance of maintaining peacekeeping forces in Iraq for a number of years, but also stated that in order to help Afghanistan there will need to be a future reallocation of resources

“In the long term, there’s going to have to be a resource swing from Iraq to Afghanistan in order to bring about success in Afghanistan given the limits that I see in the ability of the Afghan security forces to solve the problem themselves.”

According to Biddle, if the creation of the security force was funded by the international community during a war time scenario it would run the risk of establishing a half a million person security apparatus that could not be supported by Afghanistan or receive adequate international funding during peacetime, thus further threatening the stability of the country.

Biddle suggested using a large number of non Afghan troops to negotiate a long term power sharing strategy for the country that would eventually be enforced my smaller, local Afghan forces.

Markey discussed the influence of Pakistan in U.S. dealings in Iraq, claiming that relations between U.S. forces and Pakistan’s military was more positive than what has been reported recently. “In a number of important instances they have actually been able to coordinate fire with their Pakistani counterparts. They have essentially gotten calls from the Pakistani side identify militants that were getting ready to cross across the border,” said Markey.

Markey reported that recent discussion regarding a reconciliation between Moderate Taliban elements and the Afghan government is actually political maneuvering by Afghan President Hamid Karzai rather a realistic approach. “There was a desire by Karzai to push this in order to try and win greater unity within the Pashtun community to help him in his reelection bid,” said Markey.