| | Ties to Karzai on the mend: US Pajhwok
03/17/2010
By Lalit K Jha
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WASHINGTON - The Obama administration has a better relationship with ýAfghan President Hamid Karzai than was a year ago, Special US Representative for ýPakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke says.ý
"As for the overall relationship, in early March 2010, we are, without question, in a ýbetter relationship with President Karzai than we were a year ago today. Karzai has ýreached out to the Taliban with his reintegration programme." ý
Holbrook told Fareed Zakaria of the CNN in an interview Karzai had endorsed the ýoperation in Marja. "He was very explicit. He stood there on the ground. It was a ýdramatic performance, and it was a clear endorsement. He was accompanied by ýAmerican military and by his own people." ý
In response to a query, the diplomat said: "Now your point on the elections, the ýelection commission is well taken, and everybody in the national community has ýexpressed those concerns, and we are in consultations with them about that." ý
With regard to the Marja assault, Holbrooke said "clear, hold, build and transfer" was ýthe shorthand for the strategy. "That's why we made a major effort, probably the ýgreatest in the history of counterinsurgency, to bring in with the military forces, as ýsoon as the area was secure, civilians."ý
ý The US government, the State Department, USAID put together a small but very ýhigh-quality team that had been moving into Marja and, most importantly, ýaccompanied by Afghan officials, the ambassador observed.ý
He believed NATO commander Gen. McChrystal, in launching the operation, did ýsomething unprecedented. "He gave up tactical surprise, which is one of the cores of ýany military strategy, announced the operation in advance precisely to make sure the ýcivilians got out of the way. He gave the Taliban a chance to move out, because he ýknows that if you kill Taliban, you also kill civilians."
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