02 December 2009

Civilians to Expand U.S. Commitments to Afghanistan and Pakistan

Secretary Clinton, with Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen, said civilian assistance will continue after U.S. troops leave Afghanistan.

By Stephen Kaufman
Staff Writer

Washington — Even after U.S. forces have left Afghanistan, U.S. civilians will remain to help the country build its democratic institutions and restore its agricultural economy, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says, adding that civilian assistance programs are also part of the approach to Pakistan.

In her testimony to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee December 2, Clinton said the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan “is not open ended,” but “more civilians and more assistance to Afghanistan, and significantly expanding our civilian efforts in Pakistan,” will continue. Clinton termed it a “significant civilian commitment that will continue long after combat forces leave.”

The secretary was joined by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike McMullen, at the hearing. The trio later testified  before the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.

The United States and its allies and partners have “an enduring commitment” to the South Central Asia region, Clinton said.

“Civilian experts and advisers are helping to craft policy inside government ministries, providing development assistance in the field, and working in scores of other roles,” said Clinton, who added that civilian efforts are already yielding results.

The civilian component includes State Department personnel with expertise in the rule of law and governance, and experts from the U.S. Department of Agriculture who have as much as 40 years of experience and are helping the country restore its agricultural sector, the traditional core of Afghanistan’s economy.

“This will create jobs, reduce the funding that the Taliban receives from poppy cultivation, and draw insurgents off of the battlefield,” she said.

The Obama administration is on track to triple the number of civilian positions in Afghanistan to 974 by early 2010, and Clinton said each U.S. civilian employee “leverages 10 partners” inside the country, ranging from local Afghan staff to experts employed by U.S.-funded nongovernmental organizations.

The civilian component has worked with Afghan authorities to raise the country’s student population from less than 1 million — virtually all boys — when the Taliban government was overthrown in 2001, to the current level of 7 million, 40 percent of whom are girls. Clinton said the goal is to increase the number of students by an additional 5 million to 6 million.

Agricultural experts have rehabilitated irrigation canals in the country and worked with Afghanistan’s agricultural ministry and international donors to provide Afghan farmers with better fertilizer and farm equipment, as well as heartier seeds that resulted in a “bumper wheat crop,” the secretary said. The country also exported its first big shipment of apples and pomegranates to India. These “are measurable benchmarks,” Clinton said.

But U.S. agricultural experts will continue to monitor how well the sector’s economy is improving, including how many people it employs, and the relationship between legal products and opium cultivation in the country, she said.

On democracy building, the secretary said the Obama administration has “real concerns about the influence of corrupt officials in the Afghan government,” but welcomed President Hamid Karzai’s pledge to “combat corruption, improve governance and deliver for the people of his country” after winning re-election in November.

His words are welcome, Clinton said, but he and the Afghan government must be held “accountable for making good on these commitments.”

U.S. civilians from the Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration and Federal Bureau of Investigation are enhancing their law enforcement cooperation and intelligence sharing on corruption and major crime in Afghanistan, she said. In addition, the United States is withholding assistance from Afghan ministries that “we’re not going to touch … until they’re cleaned out.”

The Obama administration plans to strengthen the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction and support Afghan anti-corruption efforts, such as its major crimes task force.

But Clinton said the influx of international supplies and contracting money into the country can be illegally siphoned off and, along with intimidation and extortion, provide the Taliban with a major source of funding.

“We just have to be honest here about how complex and difficult this problem is, and how, frankly, it is not all an Afghan problem,” Clinton said.

President Obama’s strategy includes civilian assistance to Pakistan. The secretary said the U.S. relationship with that country “needs to be anchored in common goals of civilian rule, robust economic development, and the defeat of those who threaten Pakistan, Afghanistan, the United States, and the rest of the world.”

During her visit to Pakistan in October, Clinton outlined millions of dollars in U.S. assistance for Pakistan ranging from humanitarian, education and security assistance to microloans and a cellular-phone network.

“We’ll significantly expand support intended for Pakistan to develop the potential of their people … by demonstrating a commitment to Pakistan that has been questioned by the Pakistanis in the past,” she told U.S. lawmakers.