(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) By Ronald Baygents
WASHINGTON, April 24 (KUNA) -- Security and governance issues dominated a panel discussion on Afghanistan at the Brookings Institution on Monday, with a representative of the Ghani administration and the former Karzai administration offering conflicting political views on the way forward in the troubled country.
The forum, entitled "The Long War in Afghanistan and the Trump Administration," featured Hamdullah Mohib, the Afghan ambassador to the US; Anwar-ul-Haq Ahady, former Afghan minister of finance and minister of transportation and commerce; and Vanda Felbab-Brown, senior fellow at the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence at Brookings.
Mohib said the Taliban attack last week that killed 140 Afghan military personnel at an army base in northern Afghanistan "marks the beginning of the end of the Taliban." Noting that Afghans suffered 49,000 casualties last year, Mohib said the government must not only defend the people against the Taliban but must go on the offensive. The government of President Ashraf Ghani has a four-year strategy to "win the peace," Mohib said, but as long as the Taliban wants to "bring havoc" to the Afghan people, "we will fight back." But Ahadi, who intends to contest the 2019 presidential election in Afghanistan, said that while the administration of US President Donald Trump may be pursuing a military solution in Afghanistan, "I don't think it's possible." "There is no peace plan by anybody," Ahadi said, and protocol should not prevent the Afghan government from discussing "very serious issues" with its opponents, and determine "what each side will concede." US and NATO forces cannot "completely crush" the Taliban, Ahadi said as he urged "a political solution, not a military solution." Whereas in years past the main players in the conflict were Afghanistan, the US, the Taliban and Pakistan, today Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, India, Turkey and other central Asian countries are playing a role, he said.
Russia in particular wants to "change the international order," Ahadi said, and is providing support to the Taliban. But having prolonged conflict in Afghanistan between Russian and US interests will be devastating, he said.
While Mohib referred to the Taliban as "the enemy," Ahadi warned of the careless use of language, asking rhetorically if the Taliban are "brothers or the enemy?" He said it would not be easy to begin peace talks with a group being labeled as "evil." But Mohib said the Taliban are corrupt, levying illegal taxes and engaging in illegal mining and logging. The Taliban "is not a political movement anymore. It is a movement of criminals," he said.
The only known Taliban political position is that it wants the removal of foreign troops, Mohib said. However, when a big draw-down of foreign troops occurred in 2014, security did not improve in areas of Afghanistan where foreign troops left, he said.
When asked by Brookings senior fellow and panel moderator Michael O'Hanlon if the decision by Ghani to replace six top Afghan defense officials after the deadly army base attack last week was a direct response to that attack, Mohib said that was part of the reason for the decision.
Meanwhile, Felbab-Brown said that the policies and politics in Afghanistan need to focus on security and governance, Ethnic patronage and corruption are "so pervasive" in the country, she said, and this problem existed under the administration of former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, which she described as "Mafia-like" in its criminality. Nevertheless, the Anti-Corruption Justice Center in Afghanistan established by Ghani "still has a long way to go," she said.
The changes made by Ghani in the Afghan military are "encouraging," she said, but overdue.
Afghanistan is in a "deep crisis," she said, and expressed hope that in the remaining two-and-a-half years of the Ghani administration, the focus will turn more toward pushing for reform to combat corrupt practices. The constant politicking, political polarization and fractious debates are a "diversion" from solving the problem, she pointed out.
On the economic front, she said Ghani inherited a "war economy," and that many Afghan jobs are tied to the presence of foreign forces. There is no way, "jobs can just be created" in Afghanistan, she said.
Panel participants were hard-pressed to specify the policies of the Trump administration toward Afghanistan.
While candidate Trump talked about the need for the US to stay out of wars in foreign lands, Ahadi said more recent statements from the Trump administration indicate that the US "is not going to disengage" -- a position he said he supports.
Felbab-Brown said she hopes Trump national security adviser H.R. McMaster, who visited Afghanistan earlier this month, will help the Afghan government focus more on dealing with corruption issues. She said Afghanistan needs "a broader vision, not just more troops". (end) rm.hb
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