‘Victory in reconciliation’
Interest on Taleban side for talks: Mattis
KABUL, Afghanistan, March 13, (AP): US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday he believes victory in Afghanistan is still possible — not necessarily on the battlefield but in facilitating a Taleban reconciliation with the Afghan government.
Mattis spoke shortly before arriving in Kabul, where security concerns were so high that reporters traveling with him were not allowed to publish stories until his party had moved from the Kabul airport to the US-led military coalition’s headquarters. That was the first such restriction on coverage of a Pentagon chief’s visit in memory.
Mattis said he would be meeting with President Ashraf Ghani and top US commanders.
“We do look toward a victory in Afghanistan,” he said, adding, “Not a military victory — the victory will be a political reconciliation” with the Taleban, which has achieved a stalemate in recent years and shown little interest in conceding to the Kabul government.
Mattis, a retired Marine general who commanded US troops in southern Afghanistan in the opening weeks of the war in 2001, said getting the Taleban to reconcile en masse may be “a bridge too far.” So the emphasis is on drawing in Taleban elements piecemeal.
He described this approach as an effort to “start peeling off those who are tired of fighting,” after more than 16 years of war.
“We know there is interest on the Taleban side,” he said.
He defined victory in Afghanistan as a political settlement between the Taleban and the government, and an Afghan military that is capable of securing the country largely on its own. At that point, he said, Afghanistan would not be “a haven for attacks internationally” as it was when al-Qaeda used the country as a launching pad for the attacks of Sept 11, 2001.
Ghani opened his meeting with Mattis at the Presidential Palace by expressing appreciation for the US military’s sacrifices over the years, and offering praise for the new war strategy approved by US President Donald Trump last August.
Ghani called the new US approach a “game changer.”
“It has forced every actor to reexamine their assumptions,” he said, adding that in the short run this could intensify the conflict. On the positive side, he said, it enables his government to make an unconditional peace offer to the Taleban without it looking like a surrender. He said it also allowed his government to approach Pakistan with an offer of a “comprehensive dialogue.”
US intelligence officials are predicting the war will remain stalemated as the traditionally most intensive fighting season begins this spring.
The visit is Mattis’ second since Trump announced last August that, despite his instinct to pull US troops out of Afghanistan, his administration would take a more aggressive approach to the conflict, now in its 17th year.