Karzai: NATO should scale back, hasten handover

Afghan President Hamid Karzai gestures toward a journalist, not pictured, at the end of his press conference at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Feb. 26, 2012. / AP Photo

(CBS/AP) KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.S. campaign in Afghanistan suffered a double blow Thursday when the Taliban broke off peace talks and President Hamid Karzai demanded NATO troops immediately pull out of rural areas because of anger over a U.S. soldier's alleged killings of 16 civilians.

The setbacks effectively paralyze the two main tracks for ending the 10-year-old war. Part of that exit strategy is to gradually transfer authority to Afghan forces while another tack is to pull the Taliban into some sort of political discussions with the Afghan government.

Karzai also said he now wants Afghan forces take the lead for countrywide security in 2013, a year ahead of schedule. He spoke as Afghan lawmakers were expressing outrage that the U.S. flew the soldier suspected in civilian killings to Kuwait Wednesday night when they were demanding he be tried in the country.

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"Afghan security forces have the ability to keep the security in rural areas and in villages on their own," Karzai said in a statement after meeting visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. He said he had conveyed his demand to Panetta during their meeting.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai confirmed that Karzai was asking for NATO to immediately pull back from villages and rural areas to main bases.

The soldier, who has not been named, is accused of going on a shooting rampage in villages near his base in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing nine children and seven other civilians, and then burning some of their bodies.

Karzai told Panetta that the weekend shootings in southern Afghanistan were cruel and that everything must be done to prevent any such incidents in the future. He said that was the reason he was demanding the pullout from rural areas now and early transfer of security.

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President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron said in Washington on Wednesday that they and their NATO allies were committed to shifting to a support role in Afghanistan in 2013.

Mr. Obama gave his fullest endorsement yet for the mission shift, but he said the overall plan to gradually withdraw forces and hand over security in Afghanistan will stand.

A Gallup poll released Thursday found that half of Americans favored a quicker withdrawal, with just about a quarter supporting the current timetable.

In January, after French President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested that foreign forces speed up their timetable for handing combat operations to Afghan forces in 2013, Karzai said he would be in favor of that — if it were achievable.

The call for an immediate exit from rural areas is a new demand however, and it is unclear how it will affect the transition strategy and ongoing talks with the U.S. about how to manage a long-term U.S. military presence in the country.

Panetta's trip to Afghanistan was the first high-level visit since the shooting incident. During his meeting with Karzai, he acknowledged that the U.S. had made a series of mistakes, including the shooting, the Koran burning and a video uncovered earlier this year showing Marines apparently urinating on dead militants.

Karzai is known for making dramatic demands then backing off under U.S. pressure. Even if he eventually changes his tone, the call for a pullback will likely become another issue of contention between the Afghans and their international allies at a time of growing war weariness in the United States and other countries of the international coalition.

The Taliban said they were calling off talks with the United States because the U.S. kept changing the terms of negotiations.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the insurgent group wanted to limit talks to prisoner exchanges and the establishment of a political office in Qatar, but U.S. negotiators wanted to broaden the discussion.

The Taliban said U.S. officials have recently made new demands in the talks, but did not specify what they were.

"Because of these American changes, the Taliban was obliged to stop the talks," Mujahid said.

Mujahid also said that the Afghan government had not been part of any negotiations and that the insurgent group did not want the Afghan government included.

Panetta applauded Karzai last month for telling an interviewer that the U.S., Afghan government and the Taliban recently held three-way talks aimed at moving toward a political settlement of the war.

The Taliban denied the claim at the time.

Afghan officials told The Associated Press that the U.S. had agreed in January to include representatives of the Karzai government in future meetings, but U.S. officials would not confirm that. U.S. officials did say that if this initial trust-building phase of contacts with the Taliban blossoms into full peace negotiations, the U.S. would sit alongside the Taliban and the Afghan government.

[Turtleread]

I have created a White House petition asking that the timetable be sped up so that our troops can leave Afghanistan this year. To sign this petition, follow this address and create an account. It is free. My petition is at: http://wh.gov/R3P

[smittyc]

The rank and file in the military need a break. Our guys have been filmed urinating on dead enemies, burning the Koran and now killing civilians. They are clearly war worn, and with Obama's policy change in the military there are no replacements for combat positions. Going forward the question should be what will happen next and recognize the solution to preventing the what next is to get out. The most senior diplomat and most experienced and knowledgeable diplomat and most loyal diplomat to Obama when Obama took office, Holbrook passed away of a heart condition a year ago, his dying words were get out of Afghanistan. That is a fact. As far as anyone condemning the rank and file, they have been at it for over ten years while the president plays golf, attends basketball games, and the military brass gets evacuated when their safety is threatened. Obama promised to lead by example, draw your own conclusions.

[madjek]

The first thing we should scale back and hand over is any U.S. responsibility for karzi security. bye

[john5673]

NATO must take a serious view of the message and decide to end the unwanted and immoral war ASAP.
When Talibans were defeated our war was over and we had no business to continue bombing and killings and creating more Jihadis day and nights in that part of the world.
Obama has ended the immoral, illegal and unwanted Iraq war rightly but he has expanded and made more bloody Afghan war wrongly.
Now, when the majority of Afghanistan is against us, we have no moral or legal business to continue that war any day more. It is too bad that we have killed many more innocent and created many more Jihadis continuing this war. Hopefully, Obama, neocons, right wing radicals and warmongers will take a serious view of this debacle before starting another war in the middle east.

[markag55]

Why do only half of all Americans agree we should be out of the villages of Afghanistan? Why not most Americans? I hate to see civilians or our soldiers killed. Use the drones! Use the drones! We are not against Afghanistan--we're against al-Qaeda and the Taliban! We know how to WAGE a SMART war, let's learn out to WIN one! Get our troops out of the Middle East!

[samXXkiley]

coucou,
it was predictable, NATO forces have accumulated blunders
"au revoir"

[wizardlady]

Consensus is....President OBAMA.....You have the GREEN light to "GO". It is just good common decency to leave a gathering IF your HOST asks you to go. Bring ALL the troops home....yesterday....you can find a space for them on our borders.

[Overruled1]

President Karsai, have you arrested any of the murderers of the soldiers the religious nuts murdered because of their extreme beliefs?
IF no, ****.
IF yes, sure, we should pull out.

[Overruled1]

Shut
The
Frak
Up

[Overruled1]

Shut
The
Frak
Up

[Observer1504]

Lets see ....I predict that as the last group of American troops leave Afghanistan Karzai and the Afghan elite will also board a plane and move to a friendly country where they can spend the rest of their lives supporting themselves in the finest lifestyles possible financed by the billions stolen from the American taxpayers. The Afghan Army will perform much like the ARVN did when Vietnam fell. The Taliban will resume control ... and the country will return to the state it was in before we jumped in. Thousands dead and billions of dollars wasted to accomplish absolutely nothing.
I spent two years on the ground and in the bush in Vietnam and I am sick of wars of choice.

[wizardlady]

Sounds like you have it assessed to the "T".

Wars are for the RICH to get richer, and as a population control. We are no more civilized as a world people than the cave men.

[msay3]

Karzai wants his forces to take the lead in 2013....Well, Mr. Karzai, HAVE AT IT!!! The sooner our troops leave this miserable country, the better off we will be! Bring our troops home!!! Leave this country to kill each other off!!! Like the extinction of the dinosaurs, they don't contribute much to the well being of future generations!!!!