[American and Afghan special operations forces have been fighting together against Islamic State militants since 2014, and the U.S. and NATO continue to train and equip Afghan security forces. U.S. military officials say their long-term intentions are to establish a bulwark here against Islamist extremism and foreign aggression in a strategic neighborhood that includes Russia, Iran and China.]
By Pamela Constable
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Former
Afghan president Hamid Karzai has lashed out at both the United States
and Pakistan,
accusing them of using the Afghan war to further
their
own interests. (Rahmat Gul/AP)
|
KABUL
— He has long been dismissed
by critics as a cranky, embittered has-been, given to provocative rants against
the American government whose might and money sustained his government for
years — and whose relationship with him eventually soured into a
recrimination-filled frost.
But former Afghan president Hamid Karzai is
not finished yet. The cagey politician and onetime Western protege, 60,
maintains a wide circle of contacts from his artfully appointed, steel-walled
compound in the Afghan capital. And as the current government struggles to cope
with relentless violence by the Taliban and Islamic State amid a tangle of
domestic political battles, Karzai’s criticisms are beginning to gain an
audience in Afghanistan.
His theories often sound conspiratorial and
his proposals self-serving. It is not always easy to tell whether he believes
his more far-fetched assertions, such as that the United States is secretly supporting
the Islamic State offshoot in Afghanistan to justify establishing a large
permanent military presence, dominate the country and control the volatile
surrounding region.
American and Afghan special operations forces
have been fighting together against Islamic State militants since 2014, and the
U.S. and NATO continue to train and equip Afghan security forces. U.S. military
officials say their long-term intentions are to establish a bulwark here
against Islamist extremism and foreign aggression in a strategic neighborhood
that includes Russia, Iran and China.
“The United States is not here to go to a
party,” Karzai said in a recent interview with The Washington Post, sipping
espresso in his book-lined study. “There is no need for them to build so many
bases just to defeat a few Taliban. They are here because all the great
American rivals are in the neighborhood, and we happen to be here, too. They
are welcome to stay but not to deceive us.”
As the insurgent conflict drags into its 17th
year and the once-diminished U.S. military role expands under the Trump
administration, Karzai has repeatedly expressed strong opposition and fears of
further escalation. “Too many Afghans are dying for an uncertain future,” he
said. “We are too small and poor to ask the U.S. to stop, but we are a country,
and our interests must be respected.”
Such comments can seem like a throwback to
Karzai’s final years in power, when he took to angrily denouncing U.S. and NATO
troops as foreign occupiers who bombed villages and raided homes with no regard
for civilian life. As he left office in 2014, Karzai refused to sign an agreement
allowing U.S. bases to remain in the country, although his successor Ashraf
Ghani signed it as soon as he assumed the presidency.
These days, the former president is also
voicing fears and suspicions that are shared by frustrated, confused and
war-weary Afghans. Like him, many remain ambivalent about the American
presence, deeply suspicious about next-door Pakistan’s role in abetting
insurgents— a charge Pakistan has repeatedly denied — and fearful that an
expanded U.S. military role may sink any prospects of peace. The Taliban has
said repeatedly that it will not negotiate as long as foreign troops remain.
“Karzai is not alone in his paranoia,” said
Davood Moradian, executive director of the Afghan Institute for Strategic
Studies.
“People all over the region think Daesh is an
American import,” Moradian said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic
State. He said there was “historic precedent” for such suspicions, noting that
the U.S. supported Islamist militias here during the Cold War and then
abandoned the country. “Now Islamic extremism is out of control.”
Some former associates wince at Karzai’s
unrelenting attacks on his onetime U.S. benefactors and thinly veiled
suggestions that Afghans should be courting powerful neighbors like Moscow
instead. They argue that despite rough patches, Washington remains a far more
trustworthy ally and that its support is crucial to the country’s survival.
Ghani has developed a close relationship with U.S. military officials here, and
American aid pays the lion’s share of government salaries.
“I differ with Mr. Karzai on this. We cannot
afford to lose American support,” Mohammad Umer Daudzai, a former official in
Karzai’s cabinet, said politely.
“There is no one else who can step in and
replace them. The last time they left, it was a disaster,” he said, referring
to the U.S. withdrawal after the Soviet conflict that was followed by a civil
war. “This time, they need to stay another 10 or 20 years.”
On the other hand, there is wide agreement
here, and a growing consensus in Washington, that Karzai has been right on one
major issue — the need to put more pressure on Pakistan to stop sheltering
Taliban militants. Although the Obama and George W. Bush administrations treated
Pakistan as a recalcitrant but vital anti-terror ally, President Trump has
taken a much harder line and recently suspended security aid.
One high-profile endorsement has come from Zalmay
Khalilzad, an Afghan-born former U.S. ambassador to Kabul in the early 2000s,
who visited here recently and met with a variety of people, reportedly
exploring a political or diplomatic role. In an interview this week with Voice
of America, Khalilzad described Karzai as “a national leader” and said they
were “on the same page” about Pakistan. He echoed Karzai’s call for additional
sanctions on Pakistani military officials.
Other analysts said that the deepening
problems of the Ghani government, which include numerous delays and
difficulties in scheduling national elections, are lending more credence to
Karzai’s criticism of the U.S.-brokered deal between Ghani and his top rival,
Abdullah Abdullah, after fraud-plagued elections in 2014. That agreement created
the badly divided National Unity Government.
Karzai has called for an alternative
political path forward, repeatedly proposing a loya jirga, or traditional
gathering for debate and decision. Afghan and foreign critics see this as a
ploy for him to manipulate the meeting and make a political comeback, but
Karzai strongly rejects that charge.
“I know the Americans are worried that a
jirga will ask them to leave and ask me to return, but I have no desire to
return,” Karzai said in the interview. “Today, things are going so badly that
we need to go back to the people. The United States has no need to fear us, but
America’s behavior is damaging us, and our belief in the democratic values of
the West is being shattered. Why do they want to see us weak and unstable?”
Yet for all his dark accusations, Karzai, who
speaks cultured and flawless English, can be diplomatic and charmingly
self-aware. He veers unexpectedly from dignified umbrage to chortling glee. In
the interview, he acknowledged with a laugh that he had been “brutally frank”
with U.S. officials during his presidency but suggested that it was his
patriotic duty at the time.
“I am not anti-American,” Karzai said. “I
oppose a lot of U.S. policies, but I remain an ally. If the Americans act
honorably, they will find us very accommodating.”
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