Rice, British officials hold talks on Afghanistan
Recent reports have concluded that the mission faces grave dangers because of the weak Afghan government and the uneven commitment of NATO members.
LONDON — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice huddled with British officials today to sketch out new goals for the troubled allied effort in Afghanistan at a time of deepening concern over the direction of the 6-year-old conflict.
Rice met with British Minister Gordon Brown and Foreign Secretary David Miliband ahead of a series of top-level meetings of the Western alliance in the months ahead to settle on a long-term course for the mission.
She acknowledged that the allies need to strengthen leadership, add combat troops, better address the involvement of Afghans in producing opium, and extend the authority of a weak central government further into the country's heartland.
"It's bumpy and there's a lot of maturing that the alliance is having to do to do this," she told reporters on her plane en route to London. Afghanistan "is a very difficult place to work."
Rice insisted that the trend in the country is toward improvement, but acknowledged serious problems, including the Taliban's ability "to wreak havoc on the Afghan people."
In this, her assessment was more sober than that of President Bush, who will meet with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer on Feb. 29. Last week in his State of the Union address, Bush described a country with a surging economy, advancing education and improving security. He did not mention any of the problems confronting U.S. officials and their allies.
But over the last week, a series of reports by respected private groups -- including one headed by retired U.S. Marine Gen. James L. Jones, who also serves as an administration envoy -- have concluded that the mission faces grave dangers because of the weakness of the Afghan government and the uneven commitment of NATO governments.
Majorities in all the contributing countries, except for the United States and Britain, want their troops to pull out of Afghanistan.
Last month, a plan to install Paddy Ashdown, an experienced British politician, as a "super envoy" to coordinate the mission was vetoed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai as a threat to his nation's sovereignty. Rice said she was confident the alliance would soon find another suitable candidate, most likely a European.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies, though determined not to relive the frictions they experienced in 2003 during the run-up to the Iraq war, continue to struggle against pressure from U.S. officials and others for troop increases. Last week, the German government again firmly rejected suggestions to send its troops to confront violence in southern Afghanistan.
