INTERVIEW
Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry Roundtable Interview with Afghan Press
May 13, 2009
Kabul, Afghanistan
AMBASSADOR EIKENBERRY: Let me just start, and if I could say a few words – I’m going to ask in a moment my wife Ching to say a few words, and then I’d like to spend most of the time just listening to your questions and answering them as best I can.
For me, this is coming home. I served in your country on two previous occasions wearing a military uniform. I was here in 2002 and 2003 working closely with the Ministry of Defense and the Afghan National Army to assist in efforts of your country to build a new Army. I came back to your country in 2005 and I was here until 2007 leading the United States Coalition. I’ve traveled to 30 of your 34 provinces of Afghanistan. I’ve had an opportunity to meet many of the leaders of your country, many of the people of your country.
I never dreamed when I left your country in 2007 that I would have the opportunity to come back one more time. One of the greatest moments of my life – the greatest moment of my life – was when I was called by the United States Secretary of State, Secretary Clinton, at home and told that President Obama was going to nominate me to be the next United States Ambassador to Afghanistan, nominated by our President and then confirmed by the United States Senate to come back to Afghanistan to lead the United States mission in Afghanistan at this very critical time in Afghanistan’s history, at this moment where success in Afghanistan for you is critical for the United States’ overall national security. For me to have this opportunity is something that I could never have dreamed of. And as I said, it is for me to come back – in a way to come back home, to be among friends.
We have no illusions about how difficult the days and the months ahead will be, but our President has announced a new strategy. It is a clear strategy. If we can combine our efforts to implement this strategy then you will succeed, and if you succeed we, the United States of America, succeeds.
So I want to say first and foremost, I believe in the Afghan people. I believe in the Afghan government. I believe in this mission. Our nation is committed and I personally am committed.
In talking about commitment, let me just say one word about my wife who is here with me right now. Of course when I was here on my previous two tours of duty in your country, I was a military commander so of course my wife was not with me. But now in the third time as the United States Ambassador, my wife Ching is an employee in the United States Embassy and she’s here with me. Of course it’s great to, this third time, to not have to be separated from my family and from my wife. But more than that, I wanted to tell my friends that my wife being here, this is a sign of the commitment of our country. This is a sign of my personal commitment. She is here with me.
Secondly, I’d like to say we know there are some really difficult security problems right now in parts of Afghanistan. But there’s a lot of good things that are happening in Afghanistan. Many parts of Afghanistan are getting a more normal life. My wife Ching being here with me, that’s also a sign that things are getting more normal and they’re going to get better.
Let me turn to my wife Ching, and ask for her just to say a few words.
CHING EIKENBERRY: Good afternoon. Salaam. My name is Ching, C-H-I-N-G, and I would like you to call me Ching in the future.
My husband said he feels like coming home when he comes back to Afghanistan for the third time. Although I have never been to Afghanistan before, I feel like coming home also. I’ll tell you why later.
As for this mission, I feel very honored to be with my husband to represent the United States of America. As my husband said, it’s a very critical time. But when I see the eyes of your people I know we can do it.
Now I’m going to tell you why I feel like coming home for myself as well. You probably know from my name I’m a Chinese-American. My parents are from China. We believe in reincarnation, people live many lives. When I step on the soil from the airplane in Kabul Airport, I feel like I’ve been here before. I start to believe that maybe in one of my last lifetimes I was an Afghan. And when I see the people here, and the people in the compound, like I said, I see warm eyes. I really start to believe that. There is something special about your country and your people. As my husband said, he served here twice and I was not with him, but since then every time he talked about his work in Afghanistan and the people he met, right away, immediately, his eyes became very bright and very warm, and I was very envious of that. I believe there is something special about that work. And I know after we complete our duty here I will have twinkles in my eyes as well.
It’s nice to meet all of you. Tashakur [thank you].
AMBASSADOR EIKENBERRY: I just wanted you to have an opportunity to see my wife.
The last thing before I open it up for questions, let me say something about my new title of Ambassador. I was here in your country two times serving as a military commander, as a general officer, and I have been, I am, I always will be very proud of my 35 years of military service, especially with my time serving in your country. But my new title of ambassador is one that I now take with enormous pride, to serve as President Obama’s representative to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and to lead our government efforts in your country. So my military title of general has been retired, and it’s with great honor that I now assume the title of ambassador.
With that, friends, let me open it up to your questions. I look forward to hearing from you.
QUESTION: Mr. Ambassador, you have done a lot in your uniform service, serving Afghanistan. As your new position title of ambassador, what are your plans for Afghanistan’s future, such as with civilian casualties? What will be your plan to avoid civilian casualties in Afghanistan?
AMBASSADOR EIKENBERRY: Thank you. Thank you, Sabir, for your question.
Of course my first priority as the new ambassador to your country is the full implementation of President Obama and his administration’s new strategy in your country. As Secretary of State Clinton has said, this new strategy of the administration, of President Obama, it has three elements to it.
The first component is very familiar to all of you and that’s defense, or as we say in English, the first “D,” defense. Security. That has to do with more international military, more NATO, more U.S. efforts in security, to bring security to – more security to eastern and parts of southern Afghanistan that right now are in need of more security. And even more important, more efforts to help build the Afghan National Army and to help your efforts to build a more capable Afghan National Police so that you, the Afghans, can take charge of your own security.
The second component is development, or we say in English then, the second “D.” We have defense, there’s security; the second “D” is development. A much greater level of effort of helping the Afghan government to promote and to improve its own governance and to provide to develop its own governmental capabilities and to help very much with programs on the economic assistance and development side. In order to do that we’re bringing in more civilian experts, more civilian technical assistance, and we’re bringing in larger programs and much more focused programs, this done in response to the requirements and to the request that your government has made known to the international community and to the United States.
The third component has to do with the third “D,” diplomacy. This has to do with efforts to facilitate efforts of Afghanistan with your neighbors, with Pakistan, and more broadly within the region to help develop more cooperation within the region, to help to find ways to develop economic prosperity within the region, and to help develop security within the region in a more cooperative and collaborative manner.
Did you have a specific question? You first asked me about my first priorities, but did you have another specific question?
QUESTION: The major problem is the civilian casualties in Afghanistan. If you leave the military side, then what will you do from your political/diplomatic side to tackle this issue?
AMBASSADOR EIKENBERRY: Sabir, let me then specifically address the question of civilian casualties. This is not a specifically military question. This is a question about Afghan-United States relations. It is a question of Afghan relations with the international community and anyone who is providing military forces here to help your country.
Let me be clear about United States government policy. The United States of America, we regret any civilian casualties that occur within your country or anywhere that the United States has military forces in the world.
The second point, I’ll be very clear: the United States, our policies, our values – we the United States, we would never deliberately target, we would never deliberately attack and harm civilians in your country or anywhere that we operate. It is against our values.
The third point I would make is, let me talk very specifically about the fighting that occurred recently in Farah. We know there were civilians killed; we know there were civilians wounded. We are intensively investigating what happened during that fighting in Farah and we are working with your government, we are working with your military to conduct a very thorough investigation of exactly what did happen when.
There is, as you know, there were a number of casualties. There were a number of civilians killed, a number of civilians wounded. We don’t know the exact amount. You are aware that our President of the United States and our Secretary of State and our Secretary of Defense have all very explicitly expressed their condolences for what happened. We have to work, we the United States, we have to work with the government of Afghanistan. Our militaries have to work together to ensure that we don’t have a loss of mutual trust and confidence between us. This is very important between the United States and the people of Afghanistan. We will work hard to ensure that we do the best job we can to share intelligence. We will work extremely hard to have renewed efforts to further accelerate the growth of your excellent Afghan National Army, and really, frankly, needing more work to assist in your efforts to build the Afghan National Police.
I know that your government and your people, they want to be in control of their own security. That’s why it’s so important to achieve the day as soon as we can where ultimately the Afghan National Army, your Army, the Afghan National Police, your police, are the ones who are responsible for planning and conducting their own security operations with of course the United States, NATO, providing support from behind.
We also need, working with your Army, the Ministry of Defense, your police forces, on our military side, I know we continually look at the kind of tactics which are being used. It’s important that we look at the tactics which are being used to make sure that we work hard to avoid situations in which there can be very tragic losses of civilian life.
But let me make a final point here that is important. As I said, we have to work hard to reduce these kind of problems that we have faced in the past and we’re committed to that. But at the end of the day I would ask for the Afghan people, and I think the Afghan people would agree, to distinguish whatever happens when we, allies, partners, are working together side by side, to distinguish that from what happened in Khost yesterday – twelve suicide bombers attacking the Khost government municipal building, attacking the Governor’s headquarters. Cowardly. Wearing Afghan National Police uniforms and then blowing themselves up in among innocent civilians. Six civilians killed; 13 civilians wounded. Had it not been for the absolute heroic efforts of your police, your army, and some of our coalition forces, the casualties would have been massive.
I called the Governor of Khost this morning to express my condolences, and I wanted to reaffirm to you that what we saw in Khost yesterday represents the true nature of who we are collectively opposed to. What happens in a place like Farah is regrettable. We have to find ways to avoid those situations. We have to do better. But I truly believe that still, this is a question of two partners, two allies, trying to find in a very difficult situation the best way to work together for common goals and towards common ends. Those common ends being very much in the interest of the Afghan people.
Sabir, thanks for asking that question first, because it is a very important question.
QUESTION: You said that this is the second time in American history that a military general is assigned as an ambassador, even headed to retirement. I suspect you have [inaudible]. So don’t you think, or doesn’t it mean that [inaudible] much more [inaudible] than any other time in the past? And just a short question about the Taliban. As [inaudible], the President of Pakistan has said this was a CIA [inaudible] group originated [inaudible] founded the Taliban, [inaudible] in the area. And now why the international forces [inaudible] do not already [inaudible]?
AMBASSADOR EIKENBERRY: The first question, you said that I had served in the military for over 30 years. Actually 35 years. When you remind me of that I feel older. Let me be clear that the United States government did not assign me to – President Obama did not nominate me to be the Ambassador to Afghanistan because the security situation – had anything to do with the security situation, let’s say. It has to do more broadly with my experience that I’ve had in Afghanistan. It also has to do with a longer military career outside of Afghanistan where on many occasions I’ve had political-military jobs. I’ve worked in embassies before as a military attaché, so it has nothing to do with the security situation in Afghanistan.
But it’s also clear, Majid, that objectively parts of Afghanistan, they are less secure than they were two years ago. We know this. All of us agree on this. That’s why the President, given the importance of success in Afghanistan and Pakistan, given the threat of international terrorism which has a global kind of reach – not only reaching into Afghanistan, but as we saw on 9/11, the potential to attack anywhere in the world to include the United States, then the absolute commitment and the prioritization of our efforts to have success in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
So we have to have – in very close partnership with the government of Afghanistan, we have to have a fully integrated effort that brings together, as I said, defense and security, development and diplomacy. And in my new capacity as the Ambassador I’ll be very focused on trying to pull together as we say, trying to bring together this very integrated approach. Our embassy partners being the NATO, ISAF and U.S. military, the United Nations and its mission here in Afghanistan, the United States embassy in Islamabad, emphasizing the need for a common solution to our problems to be found between Afghanistan and Pakistan and very much we hope facilitated and helped by the United States of America. And the most important partner of all is at this table. It’s Afghanistan.
This question, your second question about Taliban. This is a problem which everyone at this table knows far more than I’ll ever know, is a problem that has a long, long history. Some people would say the history goes back to the 1980s. Everyone would agree the problem goes back to the 1990s. It’s a very tragic history.
I would say sometimes when a person becomes very sick that the first step is to recognize that you have an illness, to state objectively, I recognize I have a sickness here. Not to ignore it, but the first step towards a cure is to say I have a sickness and here’s what the sickness is. And I had the opportunity just before I came to Afghanistan for my third time here, I had an opportunity to participate in the trilateral talks between Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States in Washington, D.C. When I hear the leaders of Pakistan, when I hear the military commanders, when I hear the leaders of their intelligence saying in public that yes, we did create Taliban, I think that’s a very important step forward.
Now recognizing you have a sickness does not cure the sickness, but it’s an essential first step and I see more efforts being made right now in a very helpful way, efforts that I saw during the tripartheid talks in Washington, D.C. in which your leaders participated, Pakistan’s leaders participated, our President participated with the Secretary of State. I see efforts that are being made right now to really try to think through ways to cure this sickness.
QUESTION: This question is about the election in Afghanistan. As you know, the people of Afghanistan want a fair and transparent election. In these days there are reports of political deals and coalition of a new government in the next election. As we have heard from the use of [inaudible] and diplomats, that the United States neither supports nor opposes any specific presidential candidate. In case if a person wins the election who is not qualified and not a good leader, what will be your response? Will you support that candidate?
AMBASSADOR EIKENBERRY: The policy of the United States, which I think all of you have heard but I’ll reiterate, is that the United States stands for a free and fair election. We advocate what we call a level playing field. That is, any candidate who is running for elected office has equal opportunity to conduct a successful campaign. This is consistent with the United Nations’ view, with the international community’s view, and the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan’s view.
Let me be unequivocal. The United States does not support any particular candidate. This election is for the people of Afghanistan. It’s a very significant election. It’s your second presidential and provincial election, but the first time in Afghanistan modern history now that you will have had an election in which you will be in charge of this election, not the United Nations.
The United States has been, of course, very interested in helping you, the Afghan people, to conduct a free and fair election. The United States in fact donated, along with the international community, but the United States specifically donated $65 million U.S. for support of your very successful voter registration process. We’ve donated $40 million to the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan which will be critical – its functioning will be critical to the conduct of a free and fair election.
But we’re very confident that at the end of the day the Afghan people will vote their conscience, and what the Afghan voter – what the Afghan people’s decision in this great exercise of democracy, then the United States government, indeed the international community, we stand by the results of those elections. But those elections are yours to run and they are for the people of Afghanistan to decide.
QUESTION: The first question, you have been in Afghanistan for a long time serving in uniform. How do you evaluate the use of strategy in Afghanistan, the [inaudible]?
The second part is, what are the exact problems and challenges the U.S. is facing in Afghanistan?
AMBASSADOR EIKENBERRY: Thank you for that question. I could talk for hours. I could spend hours trying to answer that question.
I was here beginning, as I said, the first time I was here in 2002, almost seven years ago now, so I was here not long after the fall of Taliban. I think it’s fair to say that since 2001, 2002 that the Afghan people, your government in partnership with the international community, in partnership with the United States, that you’ve had many many successes. You have a working democratic representational government. You’ve got an increasingly capable army and we’re seeing more signs of progress in the police. You’ve got, as I understand it, the latest statistics are that you may have upwards of 60,000 Afghan men and women going to university. You’ve got, as I understand it, perhaps six million young boys and girls in school today. I could go on and on.
But it’s also fair to say if we look back to the year 2002, if you ask me about strategy, it’s also fair to say that all of us, Afghanistan, the United States, all of us, we underestimated just how difficult this would be.
I often tell people when they ask me, when you came to Afghanistan in 2002 after 30 years of warfare in Afghanistan, or 25 years of warfare in Afghanistan, what did you find? I found, we all found there were roads which had gone into disrepair. There were many buildings in Kabul that had been blown apart. There were schools that were closed. There was no accountable Afghan National Army. But what was the biggest loss that occurred over, in my view, over 25 years of warfare? It was the destruction to the human capital of Afghanistan that had occurred that was the most devastating. Two generations without school; two generations without real security; mistrust among the people.
So to get back to our strategy, I think many Afghan leaders and I know many Americans would agree if we could go back in time to 2002 – 2001, 2002, we underestimated what the real requirements would be to help Afghanistan rebuild its security, rebuild its government, rebuild its economy.
We’ve had many successes, as I’ve said, over the last seven years. We can’t ignore those. We need to build on those. But we do bring forward in partnership with the international community, in partnership with Afghanistan, we do bring forward now a new strategy, a strategy which we will hope to provide the resources necessary for implementation and the emphasis, again, being on defense, being on development, and being on diplomacy.
About the challenges, the challenges that we face together, our view is that we have to do better in our efforts to build together with the government of Afghanistan, together with the people of Afghanistan, to build your own capabilities. I’ve asked within the United States Embassy, I’ve asked within our government mission here, that everything we do in Afghanistan together with you, with the Afghan people, with the Afghan government, everything that we do, ask ourselves three questions. First question, is what we are doing helping to build Afghan capacity, Afghan capability? Second question, is it helping to build Afghan leadership? And the third question, is it helping to build Afghan sustainability?
So that would be the challenge. How do we work together better, more effectively, with our international partners to achieve those three outlines.
QUESTION: A question with two parts. The first question is how do you evaluate the elections in Afghanistan? There are a lot of critics and criticizers of the election, foreign interference, and lack of transparency in the next election, especially interference from the United States. How do you exactly evaluate the election?
The second question is that President Karzai has assigned a commission of ministers to come up with a plan to legitimize the foreign forces present in Afghanistan. What’s your comment on that?
AMBASSADOR EIKENBERRY: Two very good questions, thank you.
The first with regard to the election. The United States has an enduring commitment to the success of the Afghan people. Our mission here now is entering, and our commitment to your country is now well past its seventh year. We, along with your own security forces, with your people, we’ve made an enormous sacrifice here in Afghanistan with our own armed forces. We’ve committed a lot of United States resources, diplomatically in terms of our programs and the monies that we’ve committed to your success and in our armed forces. There’s been an enormous investment by the United States. And because of this very leading role that the United States has played inside of Afghanistan, I don’t know how it’s ever going to be possible to avoid misperceptions here inside of Afghanistan that the United States is politically favoring particular people, that somehow we’re trying to manipulate a political process.
I don’t know, given, again, this very important role that the United States is playing in your country in a positive way, I don’t know how we’ll ever be able to avoid misperceptions. It seems to me almost inevitable that whatever the United States says, whatever we try to do, that there’s the possibility there will be misperceptions.
But our President has been very clear with the new strategy. Our Secretary of State’s been very clear in our new strategy in Afghanistan. They’ve been very clear about our policies in your country. We stand for free and fair elections. We do not stand behind a candidate. We stand with the people of Afghanistan for you to make your choices. All I can do is keep reporting that.
The second question you had was with regard to the status of the international military forces, the NATO forces, and the U.S. forces within your country. This is a topic of discussion I know within President Karzai’s administration. As I understand it, just having arrived, it’s an important topic of discussion within your parliament.
I don’t want to talk about the specifics of any proposed legislation, but I will say this. Again, your country, your people, you want control of your own sovereignty. You want to be in control of your own destiny. We understand this. I don’t speak for NATO, but the understanding, having just come from NATO, we understand this and will continue to work in ways that we can partner closely together and address your own concerns. And very important, in addressing these concerns, as I said earlier when we talked at the outset, the need to continue to work to build our mutual trust and confidence, to have transparency in the way we operate, this is fundamental.
QUESTION: A question again with two parts. The first question, the United States has agreed to support or establish a new executive power similar to a president in Afghanistan. How true is this and what’s your view on that?
The second question is that on the dismissal of General McKiernan, what is that message that the dismissal will send to the people?
AMBASSADOR EIKENBERRY: The first one you had mentioned, the establishment of some kind of executive authority. Arif, that’s entirely a question for President Karzai’s administration, for the government of Afghanistan. I think that everyone, first and foremost the Afghan people, the Afghan government, are always trying to find ways for more effective executive administration, more effective governance. Whatever is decided upon in terms of improving of governance, trying to find more streamlined structures, those are entirely questions for the government of Afghanistan.
But Arif, your second question about the Commander of the ISAF forces and U.S. forces, General McKiernan, if I could say a word. I spent some time earlier talking about a new strategy of the United States of America that President Obama has announced and now we are carrying out and implementing. This new strategy, its implementation, it’s going to call for additional U.S. military forces, but even more importantly, more work with your Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police. It calls for new programs, new money for civilian reconstruction and development efforts. It calls for new changes in the United States embassy with my arrival. We have a very great team of senior diplomats, some who have already come. The Deputy Ambassador, Ambassador Frank Ricciardone, and others soon to follow.
So let me be clear. With the new strategy comes new approaches, and it leads to changes in organizations. So your question, it has nothing to do with the past. It has everything to do with the future.
I’ve known General McKiernan as a soldier, previously as a soldier. I’ve known him for many many years. General McKiernan is one of the finest American general officers that we have. He’s one of the finest men that I know.
QUESTION: The first question, again, I want to reaffirm that I don’t talk about what the government of Afghanistan is going to do about the establishment of executive power. I just want to say what is the U.S. going to do in this regard? Is there anything they are going to do to support any of this executive power?
AMBASSADOR EIKENBERRY: The United States has no position on this whatsoever. It’s a question for the government of Afghanistan.
QUESTION: [Inaudible] with the [inaudible] incident or not?
AMBASSADOR EIKENBERRY: Let me again be clear. The decisions that have been made are looking to the future, to the effective implementation of the new strategy. It’s not looking to the past.
QUESTION: The question about the legitimization of the international forces in Afghanistan. International forces in Afghanistan are operating based on the agreement of the UN Security Council and agreement with the government of Afghanistan. The establishment of the new plan or policy, what do you think, is not against those agreements and commitments?
AMBASSADOR EIKENBERRY: You’re right about the framework for the international community, for the U.S. community. We’re here at the request of and with the consent of the government of Afghanistan. So as we talk about the arrangements that – the understandings that our NATO, ISAF, and our U.S. forces operate here in Afghanistan, I’ll go back to what I had said earlier. Simply that I know that your administration, President Karzai’s administration, is looking at this. Discussions with us. Your parliament is looking at this issue. And I wouldn’t want to talk about any of the specifics of any kind of possible arrangement.
The most important aspect, though, is that we continue to operate with mutual trust and confidence between us; that we are transparent with each other; and that based upon that trust we can continue to operate effectively.
QUESTION: You talk about a transparent and fair election which will take place in Afghanistan. Currently there is insecurity in 12 provinces of Afghanistan. How do you think of a transparent and fair election to be held in Afghanistan? What’s your view on this?
AMBASSADOR EIKENBERRY: This is also a very critical question. If you have insecurity, if people are scared to cast their vote, if they feel threatened, then the question is in that particular area can we say that there’s really been a free and fair election if people are intimidated and they’re staying at home.
I know that your Ministry of Defense and your Ministry of Interior working at the direction of the government of Afghanistan – are making extensive efforts to try to provide security to that last district inside of your country. The international military forces, NATO, ISAF, the United States of America, we’re providing many, many forces to assist the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of the Interior. To provide logistic support for your forces, intelligence support for your forces, communication support for your forces, and our own forces out in areas trying to expand security so that every district in Afghanistan within your country can have the conduct of safe elections.
We know the voter registration process went reasonably well. There were some districts even during voter registration where there were problems. I don’t think that when the election day comes that it’s reasonable to think that every last district, every last voting booth will have perfect security. There will be challenges. Ultimately though, there may not be perfect security, but the goal will be to have enough security so that you, the people of Afghanistan feel that it was in the main a successful election. Good enough.
I’ll make two final points about the election, if I could. The first question is when we talk about trying to secure the election we have to think about why there is insecurity. Who is opposing the election? Who is on the side of the people of Afghanistan? Who is against the people of Afghanistan?
We, the United States, our NATO allies and our partners, we’re putting military forces here to help secure this election for the Afghan people. I’d ask if the enemy, the militant extremists, are they out there also trying to secure this election? Or are they trying to attack the election, and why?
The second question I’d ask is, would the United States of America spend over $100 million trying to ensure a free and fair election and put more additional forces into Afghanistan to secure this election if we had a favored candidate? Our commitment is to try to create, again, a level playing field, a free and fair election where the people of Afghanistan, in a safe and secure environment, can make their choices.
QUESTION: How do you see that process of election? Fair and transparent? In the future?
AMBASSADOR EIKENBERRY: I would challenge you at the table as the free press, as the media of Afghanistan, to be the ones to best answer that question. My belief is you have a very important role to play.
QUESTION: [Inaudible].
AMBASSADOR EIKENBERRY: Majid, when you asked the question – I didn’t hear that part of the question. When I was in Washington, D.C., I know there was a statement made in that regard. I wasn’t here in the mid 1990s, but I will tell you that that I’ve never heard a report like that before.
QUESTION: A question with two parts. The first one, as you mentioned, the United States or U.S. forces do not deliberately target people. And the reason he talked about the recent incident in Khost province where U.S. forces shot civilians and reportedly a civilian was killed and several others were wounded. The media witnesses, there were eyewitnesses there who were seeing this incident. How do you describe it? What’s your message for the people of Khost?
The second question is about the use of phosphorous, the chemical, during your operation in Farah province. Do you confirm this?
AMBASSADOR EIKENBERRY: Let me start with white phosphorous. Our military has said, I’ll let – our military has said there was no use of white phosphorous. The United States, our armed forces, we comply very strictly with the rules of law and the use of white phosphorous. Without trying to get too technical, white phosphorous can be used to illuminate at night, to provide light at night, but never against people as a ground – on the ground. So categorically our military has said we did not use white phosphorous. We continue to comply very strictly with international law.
With regard to Khost, are you referring to yesterday, Sadiq, in Khost? Sadiq, the reports, of course, as you could expect, the reports of what happened – still not absolute clearness on the exact sequence of events, what happened. Of course that is not known exactly right now.
What I can tell you, though, what we do know is that many, perhaps as many as ten if not more suicide bombers from the Haqqani network attacked the governor’s palace and attacked the municipal center in Khost yesterday. Some were dressed as Afghan police. The combination of them using rocket propelled grenades, rifles, and suicide bombers launched a simultaneous attack on two different points at Khost. Two suicide bombers were killed before their explosive devices went off. They were attacking civilian targets. Six civilians were killed, 13 were wounded. Afghan National Police were killed. Afghan National Army soldiers were wounded. Three coalition, three U.S. coalition soldiers were also killed in the defense of the buildings.
It’s the heroism of the Afghan police, army, and our coalition soldiers which avoided a much, much larger slaughter of innocent Afghan civilians. I’ll say that for the civilians who were killed in Khost, that of course, condolences and regrets for any civilians who were killed in Khost in this atrocious attack by terrorists.
The Taliban, however, after the attack, they got on the radio and they bragged, they boasted about the slaughter that they caused in Khost. The boasted about the killing of civilians. They boasted about setting back the lives of the people in Khost. They boasted about the fear they’ve caused in Khost. That is not what your people desire to live under. That is not the values of the United States of America.
Our efforts will be to continue to work in support of your army, in support of your police, in support of your government, in support of your people, to bring security to your country and bring prosperity to your country.
If I could just say a final word to all of you. This is my first meeting with the press, with the media inside of Afghanistan since I’ve come back, and deliberately, it’s with the Afghan media. It’s not with the international media. Both are important for me as the Chief of Mission, but you, this group for me is absolutely critical. It’s absolutely critical for the United States of America that we’re able to communicate with you, the Afghan media. You have a very important role to play in the new Afghanistan and you have a very difficult role. For you, too, it can be dangerous. For you, too, it can be very difficult to provide the objective and the factual reporting.
I and our mission here, we pledge to be transparent with you. We pledge to be inclusive with you. When I travel, when our team travels, we’re going to make every effort we can, as I’ve done in the past, to invite you to come along and see with your own eyes what we’re doing. I expect you’ll have a lot of criticisms. And for us to hear those criticisms, that can sometimes hurt, but it always helps. If it’s constructive criticism, if you help us see the truth, only through that way can we get better.
But this I would also ask of you. Outside of this embassy, outside in Kabul, beyond Kabul, throughout Afghanistan, to my current count, the United States of America has helped open over 650 schools. The United States of America has helped open over 650 health clinics. The United States of America has helped build over 3,000 kilometers of roads. The United States of America with great partnership with the Ministry of Defense under Minister Wardak and the Chief of Defense General Bismillah Khan, we’re proud of the work and any assistance we’ve given in helping to develop a new Afghan National Army. I could go on.
Somewhere out there, outside of this embassy in Kabul and beyond, we’ve also made mistakes. But what I would ask you as very responsive journalists whose views I will always value, is that as you look at the problems that are out there and report fairly on our mistakes, I also ask you to look at what we’ve accomplished together with you as partners.
Tashakur [Thank you].
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