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Holbrooke tries to ease lawmakers Afghan war fears

Posted on: Thu July 29, 2010

WASHINGTON: Richard Holbrooke, the top US envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, sought on Wednesday to allay growing concerns in Congress over the course of the war, saying the task is difficult but can succeed.

At a hearing on oversight of billions of taxpayer dollars spent in Afghanistan, lawmakers listed concerns from specific cases of corruption to the most basic question of whether the nine-year-old war can be won. Do you really believe that we can succeed at this? Democratic Representative Ben Chandler asked Holbrooke.

 I think we really have to ask ourselves serious questions about whether or not this really is doable. Holbrooke, who helped broker peace in Bosnia, conceded that fighting a resurgent Taliban and helping to rebuild Afghanistan were massive tasks but he repeatedly defended the Obama administration s strategy.

 So yes, of course, I believe we can succeed. But it is difficult. And it is the most difficult job I ve had in my career, he said. Number one, on a personal note, I wouldn t be in this job if I thought it was impossible to succeed.

 We re not delusional, he added, listing problems from high illiteracy to trying to help Afghanistan s government be accountable to its own people. US lawmakers, many facing re-election in November, are edgy over the unpopular and costly war, particularly within President Barack Obama s own Democratic Party.

After months of wrangling, Congress on Tuesday approved an additional $37 billion to pay for Obama s troop increase, with more Republicans than Democrats supporting the bill. The $37 billion is above about $130 billion Congress had already approved for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for this year. Congress has appropriated more than $1 trillion for the two wars since 2001.

Democratic Representative Jim Moran voted against the new funds on Tuesday and told Holbrooke: You ve lost me, for whatever it s worth, in terms of the viability of this mission, and I voted accordingly. Using large charts, USAID director Rajiv Shah and Holbrooke listed safeguards the Obama administration and Afghan government were putting in place to help curb corruption, which Holbrooke said was the number one recruiting tool for the Taliban.

The chair of the House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee on aid, Nita Lowey, has cut billions of dollars in aid from spending legislation because of concern over corruption in Afghanistan. She told Reuters much more needed to be done before she would stop fencing off money in the fiscal 2011 foreign aid appropriations bill before her committee.

 With every life that is tragically lost and with the reports that are coming out about corruption and the lack of accountability, it is extremely difficult to get the support of the people which determines the support of the members, Lowey said.

Representative Kay Granger, the top Republican on the subcommittee, said she was concerned by the new approach of funneling more funds directly through the Afghan government. The ongoing allegations of corruption and illicit activity do not give me confidence that now is the time to subject US funds to unnecessary risk, Granger said.

The hearing came just days after whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks made public more than 75,000 classified US military reports covering a range of incidents in the Afghan war. Holbrooke said the leak was pretty appalling but did not think there was anything in them that should change people s views of both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

A Pentagon investigation is so far focused on an Army intelligence analyst charged earlier this month with leaking information about the Iraq war published by WikiLeaks, US defence officials say.

But neither he nor anyone else has been named as suspects in the Afghanistan leak and investigators are not ruling out the involvement of more people, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

Courtesy : The News