| | US diplomats, troops, ready to help Karzai: US lawmaker AFP
11/01/2009
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WASHINGTON — US diplomats and troops in Afghanistan say they need a military "surge" there to succeed and stand ready to work with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a US lawmaker said after a visit there.
Republican Representative Duncan Hunter, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, told AFP by telephone that US personnel were "unanimous" on both fronts in a series of at least 10 meetings in the war-torn country.
"Everybody seems very confident, very excited. Everybody thinks that they can win it, we can win it, we can hand it over to the Afghans, and we can get out of there," he said during a brief stop in Dubai.
But US officials underlined that "we've got to have the surge to do what we've been asked to do. Nothing's going to work without more security. If we have the security, it's going to work," said Hunter.
The California lawmaker -- who enlisted in the US Marines after the September 11, 2001 attacks and served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan before being honorably discharged -- said Afghanistan's troubled presidential election run-off was of "very little importance" to US-led efforts.
"Karzai would have won anyway. The real question is 'what's Karzai going to do," notably in terms of battling government corruption and filling key posts with trustworthy people, said Hunter. "Karzai needs to step up."
"We need a Karzai who isn't worried about tribal stuff, or infighting, who is not paying anybody off, who is holding people accountable, fighting corruption, putting the right people in the right jobs," said Hunter.
"Everybody I talked to has faith that we can help him do that," he added. "We aren't going to leave Karzai to the wolves, we're going to work with him to do what he needs to do."
Hunter's visit came as US President Barack Obama weighed whether to send more US troops to Afghanistan, as requested by his handpicked commander there, General Stanley McChrystal.
Hunter and fellow US lawmakers on the delegation met with US diplomatic and military officials as well as Afghan authorities during the visit, which included stops in Kabul, at Bagram Air Base, and other sites.
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