President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday that Afghanistan lacked the resources to fund its security forces for the next 15 to 20 years, appealing for foreign aid to stand up the police and army.
"For 15 to 20 years, Afghanistan will not be able to sustain a force of that nature and capability with its own resources," Karzai told a joint news conference with visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
He spoke following talks with Gates on how Washington intends to implement a sweeping new war strategy that will send 30,000 extra American troops to fight the Taliban, in a bid to start withdrawing U.S. forces from July 2011.
Unannounced visit
The projected U.S. drawdown of forces has sparked concern in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan at a time when the Taliban-led insurgency is at its deadliest since the 22D1 US-led invasion ousted their regime in Kabul.
"We hope that the international community and the United States, as our first ally, will help Afghanistan reach the ability to sustain a force," the Afghan President told the news conference.
Gates arrived in Afghanistan earlier, saying he would press President Hamid Karzai to appoint "honest" ministers but playing down the need for a wholesale government shakeup.
Gates' unannounced visit comes a week after U.S. President Barack Obama approved the deployment of 30,000 extra troops and laid the groundwork for a gradual U.S. withdrawal starting in July 2011 as Afghan forces assume greater control of security.
Gates said he would tell Karzai and other Afghan leaders that Washington will remain "their partner for a long time to come" but expected Kabul to get serious about accelerating the training of Afghan forces to prepare for the day when U.S. troops will begin to pull out.
"We're in this thing to win"
We'll all be watching the appointments that get made
"As the security situation improves and we're able, over time, to reduce our forces, the civilian, developmental, economic, other kinds of relations between us will become the predominant part of the relationship," Gates told reporters aboard his plane.
During his visit, Gates said he would meet U.S. troops and tell them: "We're in this thing to win."
Gates will be the most senior U.S. official to meet Karzai since Obama announced his revised war strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan last week.
Karzai, whose re-election was tainted by rampant fraud in the Aug. 20 vote, pledged in his inauguration speech to name competent and honest ministers. His cabinet is expected to be announced in the coming days.
"We'll all be watching the appointments that get made," Gates said before arriving in Kabul.
"It is important to us, in terms of all of our success, including the Afghan success, to have capable and honest ministers in the areas that matter the most to us," he added, referring to the Afghan defense and interior ministries.
Gates said there was a tendency to paint the Afghan government "with too broad a brush" when there are "competent, capable, honest ministers and there are capable, competent and honest governors. And we just need to encourage that."
"Eye openers"
Washington knows the handover to Afghan control will only happen if the U.S. military, its foreign allies and the Karzai government can recruit, train and retain more effective Afghan security forces.
Gates said one of the "eye openers" for him was learning that many Taliban fighters were better paid than members of the Afghan national army and police. Washington and Kabul have boosted wages and promised bonuses.
Before leaving Washington, Gates signed orders to deploy the first 16,000-plus additional troops and said the bulk of them would arrive between February and April.
He said the Marines would flow into Afghanistan at a "fairly steady pace" over the next few weeks and will be at full force by about February.
Gates acknowledged the difficulty of moving and equipping all 30,000 of the extra troops by next autumn. Pentagon war planners had envisaged a 12-18 month window.
Obama's commitment means there will be nearly 100,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan -- two thirds of whom will have arrived since he took office -- along with more than 40,000 from allied countries.
After the U.S. troop announcement, NATO allies offered as many as 7,000 reinforcements of their own. Gates said that number "may go higher than that" following a conference on Afghanistan next month in London.
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