WASHINGTON: The United States has vowed to persist with air strikes in Afghanistan despite bitter new criticism from the nation’s leader Hamid Karzai about their morality as the civilian death toll mounts.
President Barack Obama’s national security advisor, James Jones, said the United States would “redouble” efforts to limit civilian casualties but would not hamper its forces in Afghanistan by banning the air strikes.
“We can’t fight with one hand tied behind our back,” General Jones said on ABC television, arguing President Karzai “understands that we have to have the full complement of our offensive military power when we need it.”
US regional commander General David Petraeus also took on board Karzai’s criticism about the impact on civilians, but said the “Taliban bears enormous blame” by firing on US troops from inside villagers’ houses.
After a week of talks in Washington that included a White House summit with Obama, Karzai said US forces risked being seen by Afghans as little better than the extremists they are fighting.
The war against the resurgent Taliban was not in itself “immoral,” he said on NBC.
“It’s the standard of morality that we are seeking, which is also one that is being desired and spoken about in America,” Karzai said, after a US attack last week that he said had killed up to 130 Afghan villagers.
“In other words, are we the same as the terrorists? Are we the same as the bad guys? Or are we standing on a much higher moral platform? Are we better human beings or not?
“The Afghan people say we are fighting together with shoulder to shoulder against terrorism. That we are part of the struggle. Our homes, our villages are not places for terrorism.”
Jones said that while US forces did not deliberately target civilians, the Taliban were “not playing by the same rules.”
“They’re using civilians as shields,” he said. “So it’s a difficult problem, but it’s not unsolvable.”
Petraeus meanwhile noted that with the Taliban making inroads into Pakistan itself, there was a “degree of unanimity” among Pakistan’s civilian and military leaders about the need to fight back.
“This is a Pakistani fight, a Pakistani battle, with elements that … threaten the very existence of the Pakistani state,” the head of US Central Command said on Fox News.
Petraeus rejected US lawmakers’ concerns over the security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal in the face of the Taliban encroachments.
“We have confidence in their security procedures and elements and believe that the security of those sites is adequate.”
Zardari admitted that Pakistan had “a problem” with the fundamentalist Taliban militia inside its borders, but said his nation was not on the verge of “collapse.”
“No. We are 180 million people. There the population is much, much more than the insurgents are,” Zardari said, fending off a mounting clamor against his leadership from US lawmakers.
Pakistan’s military said Sunday it had killed between 180 and 200 insurgents in the past 24 hours in a fierce offensive to push Taliban fighters out of the Swat valley in the country’s northwest.
The military has been pounding the Swat valley and nearby districts, triggering an exodus of refugees, after Taliban fighters advanced to within 100 kilometers (60 miles) of Islamabad despite a February peace deal.
But with Zardari pressing for billions more in aid from the Obama administration, many US lawmakers remain skeptical of the Pakistani government and military.
“There was just an air of smugness, flippancy when serious questions were asked,” Republican Senator Bob Corker told CNN, looking back on a luncheon with Zardari, Karzai and members of Congress Thursday.
While intensifying its political pressure on Pakistan, the Obama administration is increasing its military involvement in Afghanistan with more strikes on extremist targets and the deployment of 21,000 extra US troops.
Karzai said the reinforcements were arriving “late” but that “it’s never too late for a good thing.”
