Tremendous conference in Kabul just occurred 11-12 April.  My organization was lucky enough to participate and have our director sit in the main room of the event.  The conference was an Afghanistan Civ-Mil ROC drill where the highest ranking military and civilian leaders discussed the way forward in Afghanistan for the rest of the calendar year.  Attendees included Ambassador Holbrooke, U.S. amabassador to Afghanistan, Gen. Petraeus, Central Command commander, President Karzai, Afghan President, and Gen. McChrystal, NATO commander of Afghanistan.  Many, many more high level officials in attendance.  Some of the remarks to the press below following the first day of the conference

QUESTION: One of the biggest hindrances when it comes to the Afghan people in supporting the coalition troops and the international community is the fact that they say they always leave. And with this new timetable, July 2011, depending on conditions on the ground, is that going to give you enough time to clear, hold and build? If so, what can you accomplish in that time?

GENERAL PETRAEUS: First of all, you can accomplish a great deal between now and July 2011, but it’s even more important to understand what July 2011 actually is. In fact, we’ve mentioned this several times today.
 

Let’s go back to when the President announced the policy in early December, because there were really two key messages out of that policy and none of them was that we’re going to head for the exits and turn out the lights in July 2011.

There was a message of enormous additional commitment -- what I talked about earlier: troops, civilians, money, authorizations -- and there was a message of urgency. That’s really what July 2011 was designed to be. It was a recognition, an explicit recognition, that we really have to get on with this, and it wasn’t, I don’t think, just for American domestic opinion or perhaps for domestic public opinion in other NATO countries. I think it was for perhaps some here in Kabul, perhaps some of us in uniform, and so forth, and that’s really what that was about. But the words were very precise, and it talked about beginning in July 2011, a process of transitioning some tasks to some Afghan forces in a responsible manner, so that we can indeed begin to draw down our forces in a responsible manner.
 

So I think, first of all, yes, there can be a lot accomplished between now and July 2011. Remember, there’s still another 17,000 additional U.S. forces and thousands of additional NATO forces to come in, and indeed, the growth of the Afghan security forces between now and the fall of 2011 of some 100,000.
 

You’re just beginning to see, really…I talked about the inputs, getting the inputs right. We’ve just seen the very initial stages of outputs. Of course the first was the central Helmand operation where you had, in Marjah and Nad-e Ali in particular…and of course it’s well known that the next area of focus, and really overall the main effort, will be in the greater Kandahar area, and then other locations over time.
 

But there is every intention to not clear if you can’t hold. Again, we learned this in Iraq, and we are trying to apply those lessons that we learned in Iraq that are applicable. You have to obviously apply it with a keen awareness of local circumstances and of the many differences between Afghanistan and Iraq. But I think that we have shown in Marjah the determination to hold and then indeed a new Afghan National Army Corps Headquarters has been stood up there now -- there are additional forces. One of the last briefings today was the Afghan National Security Force Development Plan, and described how the additional forces will be employed as well, in coordination with those of NATO-ISAF.
So I think that gives you a flavor of how we intend to go about this with our Afghan partners.
 

QUESTION: If you have the best plan, and even if you execute it perfectly, one critical part is public opinion, public support for it back home. The President of Afghanistan says things that the White House says are disturbing. And the State Department says [inaudible]. Doesn’t that undermine public support for this entire endeavor back home [inaudible]?
 

AMBASSADOR HOLBROOKE: That’s for you to judge. You can make your own decision on that. All we’re saying today is we’re very comfortable and pleased with where we are. Secretaries Clinton and Gates spoke to that in this morning’s Sunday shows. We echo that. We’re here to do our job. And the fact that President Karzai came here today with his ministers, the fact that we’re seeing him again tomorrow, the fact that we’re planning for what we hope will be a very successful major trip to Washington -- his second of this administration on May 12th; actually that’s the central day -- should speak for itself.
 

GENERAL PETRAEUS: And the planning for the peace jirga and the Kabul conference, frankly, again, both of those ongoing. And we got some amount of preview on some of this. Frankly, the peace jirga, and to hear Minister Stanekzai explain in enormous detail just his thinking of the whole…of all that is involved in reaching national consensus -- that’s the key element in the conduct of reintegration and also of course reconciliation. You know the difference. Reintegration: more local, mid-level; some of that ongoing already, has gone on, but in accordance with interim guidance, not yet the final guidance. That won’t come until after the conduct of the peace jirga because, again, of the importance of this national consensus element of that.
 

President Karzai, Gen. Petraeus discuss civil-military cooperation in Kabul, Apr. 2010.  CDDOC Photo.

Photo view of the North Kabul International Airport, military side, April 2010.