Obama rejects Afghan war options

PRESIDENT Barack Obama rejected the Afghanistan war options before him and asked for revisions, his defence secretary has said, after the US ambassador in Kabul argued that a significant US troop increase would only prop up a weak, corruption-tainted government.

Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, who is also a former commander in Afghanistan, twice in the last week voiced strong dissent against sending large numbers of new forces, according to an administration official. That puts him at odds with the current war commander, General Stanley McChrystal, who is seeking thousands more troops.

Eikenberry’s misgivings, expressed in classified cables to Washington, highlight administration concerns that bolstering the American presence in Afghanistan could make the country more reliant on the US, not less. He expressed his objections just ahead of Obama’s latest war meeting.

At the war council meeting, Obama asked for changes in the four options he was given that could alter the dynamic of both how many additional troops are sent to Afghanistan and their timeline in the war zone.

Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the discussion turned on “how can we combine some of the best features of several of the options to maximum good effect?” He added: “There is a little more work to do. I do think that we’re getting toward the end of this process.”

One issue in the discussions, Gates said, has been “How do we signal resolve and at the same time signal to the Afghans and the American people that this isn’t an open-ended commitment?”

The president wants to clarify how and when US troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government, said another official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, Richard C Holbrooke, Obama’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, left for consultations with allies in Berlin, Paris and Moscow. British officials also are expected at some point to join the talks, part of a continuing effort to co-ordinate with allies, brief them on Obama’s strategy review and discuss what more they might contribute in Afghanistan.

The developments underscore US scepticism about the leadership of Afghan president Hamid Karzai, whose government has been dogged by corruption. The emerging message is that Obama will not do anything to lock in an open-ended US commitment.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced a list of concerns about Afghanistan: “Corruption, lack of transparency, poor governance, absence of the rule of law.”

During a news conference in Manila with Philippine foreign secretary Alberto Romulo, Clinton said: “We’re looking to President Karzai as he forms a new government to take action that will demonstrate — not just to the international community but first and foremost to his own people — that his second term will respond to the needs that are so manifest.”

Obama is still expected to send more troops to bolster a deteriorating war effort.

He remains close to announcing his revamped war strategy and probably will do so shortly after he returns from a trip to Asia that ends on November 19.