PEACE & SECURITY | Creating a more stable world
11 February 2008
United States Urges Increased Aid for Afghanistan
Amid marked progress, security and development remain linked, say officials
Washington -- Increased development and security assistance are essential as Afghanistan works to recover from conflict and poverty, U.S. officials say.
"If you look at the Afghanistan of 2001 and the Afghanistan of now, there is a remarkable difference for the better. It is our intention as partners for you and your government and for the people of Afghanistan to continue that progress and to indeed intensify that progress," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said February 7 with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband in Kabul, Afghanistan.
From 1979 to 2001, some 6 million Afghans were displaced by conflict, making them the world's single largest refugee group, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Since 2002, 4 million refugees have returned -- as many as 100,000 in the summer of 2007 alone.
In 2001, only 8 percent of Afghans had access to rudimentary health care. Today, the international community has come together to train 11,000 Afghan doctors and medical workers as well as build, refurbish and equip more than 670 hospitals and clinics nationwide, giving 65 percent of the population access to medical care.
Only 900,000 boys were enrolled in Afghanistan's schools, which the Taliban regime closed to girls. Today, there are more than 5 million students in Afghanistan's schools, including 1.5 million girls.
More than 4,000 kilometers of new roads have been built, which already are setting the stage for expanded regional development and future economic gain. Provisional reconstruction teams led by the United States and its NATO allies are helping Afghan communities.
"We are grateful to all the NATO members for having contributed to Afghanistan in whatever way they have," said Karzai. "The international community is providing the means of life for today and to the reconstruction for today in order to lay down the basis of a good future. And we are very thankful of receiving that," he added.
President Bush's January 28 announcement that the United States would deploy 3,200 additional Marines to Afghanistan is another example of the United States' commitment to Afghanistan's security, an example U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates hopes that more NATO allies will follow.
In a February 7 meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, Gates appealed to several NATO allies to lift "caveats" that restrict their military units to certain regions or duties and prevent them from fully supporting their mission.
In a February 6 appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gates emphasized that point. "I worry a great deal about the alliance evolving into a two-tiered alliance in which you have some allies willing to fight and die to protect people's security, and others who are not," Gates told the committee. "I think that it puts a cloud over the future of the alliance if this is to endure and perhaps even get worse."
But NATO can contribute in other ways toward Afghanistan's future, Gates said. "Let's think a little bit more creatively, and if somebody can't send combat soldiers into a certain area just because of the politics at home, then perhaps they could pay or provide helicopters for somebody who could," he said.
"There are different ways to resolve this problem, and we just need to be creative about it, to look at the opportunities there."
