Especially after effective elimination of Swat, South Wazirastan and TTP games?
Bush admin never imagined tough Taliban resistance
- Former US deputy secretary of state terms UK an unreliable partner in Afghanistan
By Iftikhar Gilani
NEW DELHI: The US did not assess and imagine the resistance being offered by the Taliban in Afghanistan, former US deputy secretary of state John Negroponte said on Friday.
Negroponte made these remarks while interacting with diplomats and foreign policy experts at the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) think tank. The former key aide of the Bush administration confessed that dealing with Afghanistan and its nuclear-armed neighbour Pakistan was the most tough assignment in his career, and revealed that former president George W Bush and the Pentagon believed that deposing the Taliban would solve all the problems of Afghanistan. “But they probably never imagined that they would struggle with the problem eight years later,” he said.
UNRELIABLE PARTNERS: Negroponte, who also served as the US National Intelligence director, described the UK as an unreliable partner and said except for a few countries, most of the NATO members did not concentrate on the war in Afghanistan, because they never expected it to be so tough.
NOTE: IS IT THE REASON FOR REVIVED LOVE (FLIRTING) WITH Pakistan? AND MR. NEGROPONTE YOU FORGOT TO TELL INDIANS THEY MIGHT BE RELIABLE IN THE SHORT RUN BUT ARE DISASTEROUSLY WORTHLESS
The former US deputy secretary of state was of the view that the US would not leave Afghanistan anytime soon “The last thing that the US would like to do is to leave Afghanistan to the Taliban as it is currently engaged in a major troop build up there,” he said.
Negroponte apprehended that the US might once again fall into a shell once the current phase of its involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq was over and said he was not clear that how long the US would stay in Afghanistan but he believed that the US would start the beginning of the disengagement process from mid 2011.
Speaking on Afghanistan and Pakistan, Negroponte said dealing with these two countries was the toughest assignment he had as the US deputy secretary of state. The former US National Intelligence director said now the situation was more complicated with the civilian government taking care of the economy and other issues while the army is handling the issues of national security.