Rice: Taliban "By No Means" Defeated

Secretary Of State To Talk Afghanistan Strategy, Need For More Troops With U.K. Leaders

(CBS/AP)  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has given a frank assessment of the challenges still facing Afghanistan seven years after the U.S. invasion to oust the Taliban and defeat Islamic extremism in the crucial country.

Speaking to reporters on her way to London for a day of strategy talks with senior British officials, Rice acknowledged the Taliban "have by no means been defeated and they remain a challenge," reports CBS News State Department reporter Charles Wolfson.

Rice said she thought Afghanistan was "moving forward", but she said there were still serious challenges along the border with Pakistan - where many senior Taliban and al Qaeda leaders are believed to be hiding out in the mountainous terrain - as well as concerns over Afghanistan's growing opium poppy production.

In talks Wednesday with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Rice will discuss NATO's continuing role in Afghanistan, reports Wolfson. The Bush administration has committed an additional 3,000 Marines to the fight the Taliban, and is asking its NATO allies to increase their troop commitments as well.

Rice called the ongoing discussions with other NATO members about sending additional troops "bumpy", adding, "there's a lot of maturing the alliance needs to do."

Another issue Rice was expected to bring up with Miliband and Brown is the "training and mentoring" of Afghan army troops and police, aimed at enabling the Afghans to deal with militants themselves and rely less on the international community for security assistance.

In addition to Afghanistan, Rice was expected to talk about Iraq, Kosovo and another round of sanctions against Iran, which the United Nations Security Council is now considering.

Rice said she will raise with Afghanistan's U.S.-backed president the case of an Afghan reporter sentenced to death for insulting Islam, a case that has not drawn the same wide U.S. outrage or administration intervention as one involving a Muslim condemned to death for converting to Christianity.

"This is a young democracy," Rice said Tuesday. "It won't surprise you that we are not supportive of everything that comes up through the judicial system in Afghanistan, and I do think that the Afghans understand that there are some international norms that need to be respected."

Rice said NATO allies were examining whether plans for the future size of Afghanistan's police and Army forces were sufficient to fight the continued threat from the Taliban and insurgent fighters.

The plight of violent, poor and strategically critical Afghanistan was expected to be the centerpiece of a gathering of NATO leaders later this year. In addition to perhaps expanding the planned size of Afghan forces, Rice (seen at left) said the alliance was considering ways to improve law enforcement to combat the lucrative opium poppy trade.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's spokesman said Tuesday he was concerned about the 23-year-old journalist's death sentence but he would not intervene until the courts have had their final say.

Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh was sentenced to death on Jan. 22 by a three-judge panel in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif for distributing a report he printed off the Internet to journalism students. The article asked why under Islam men can have four wives but women cannot have multiple husbands.

The court found that the article humiliated Islam, the faith of the vast majority of people in deeply conservative Afghanistan. Members of a clerical council pushed for Kaambakhsh to be punished. He has appealed.

Rice had called Karzai in March 2006 to ask for a "favorable resolution" of the Christian convert case. The man was released a short time later. That case had attracted intense news coverage and caused an outcry in the United States and other nations that helped oust the hard-line Taliban regime in late 2001 and provide aid and military support for Karzai. President Bush and others had insisted Afghanistan protect personal beliefs.

Rice did not expressly condemn the sentence imposed on the reporter or say when she would discuss it with Karzai.

Days after a retired U.S. general she has hired as a Mideast adviser called Afghanistan a state at risk of failure, Rice said Karzai's democratic government is not threatened by a resurgent Taliban.

"You're not looking at a traditional military force that I think is a strategic threat to the government, but it is certainly causing insecurity for the population and that is something that is going to have to be dealt with," Rice said.

An independent study co-chaired by retired U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Jones and former U.N. Ambassador Thomas Pickering warned that the United States risks losing "the forgotten war." It pointed to deteriorating international support and the growing Taliban insurgency. Rice also has appointed Jones as U.S. overseer for security matters between the Israelis and Palestinians.

The Taliban launched more than 140 suicide missions last year, the most since the regime was ousted from power in late 2001 by the U.S.-led invasion that followed the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

The refusal of some major European allies to send a significant number of troops to the southern front lines has opened a rift within NATO.

Troops from the United States, Britain, Canada and the Netherlands have borne the brunt of a resurgence of Taliban violence in the region, and Canada has threatened to pull out unless other allies do more of the hard work.

The U.S. contributes a third of NATO's 42,000-strong International Security Assistance Force mission, making it the largest participant, on top of the 12,000 to 13,000 American troops operating independently. The U.S. plans to send an extra 3,200 Marines to Afghanistan this spring, including 2,200 combat troops to help the NATO-led force in the south.

Britain has about 7,700 soldiers in Afghanistan, up from 3,600 in 2006.

[JoelB]

Rice has apparently forgotten that her boss said we have all the bad guys over there "on the run." She and Bush have a lock on leads in a revival of the "Three Stooges"

[lovegetpeace]

Hay finewoven,

"...conservative culture on their fanatical culture of religious extremists..."

So Americans are not Evangelical conservative extremists just like the Israel is not Rabbi extremists?

Others move to the far left or right extreme as you move to the far right or left extreme, respectively.

[lovegetpeace]

Hay finewoven,
"You make it sound like Israel was there since 500BC."

Please clarify.

[lovegetpeace]

Hay finewoven,
My point is Americans have no rights to impose anything on anyone just as nobody got a right to impose their beliefs and ideals on America.

If you think we do have a right, then lets start with the Saudi Arabia Kingdom.

[finewoven]

That is completly correct if you remove the word Taliban and replace it with the words Bush Administration.
Posted by lochlan at 04:03 PM : Feb 06, 2008

Nonsense. You have a heightend sense of the conspiratorial.

[finewoven]

On May 15, 1948, the American President advocated the creation of the State of Israel. 2 years later, 4.5 millions Palestanians were forced out of their homes and lands.
Posted by lovegetpeace at 03:15 PM : Feb 06, 2008

You make it sound like Israel was there since 500BC.

[finewoven]

But, lets assume you are right. In that case, Americans have no rights to impose our liberal culture onto their conservative culture.
Posted by lovegetpeace at 04:08 PM : Feb 06, 2008

You''ve got it slightly in error. We impose our conservative culture on their fanatical culture of religious extremists. If we imposed a liberal culture, there would be anarchy.

[lovegetpeace]

Hay finewoven,
I do not believe your point drive the Taliban. They are like any country loving people wish to get the invaders out.

But, lets assume you are right. In that case, Americans have no rights to impose our liberal culture onto their conservative culture.

[lochlan-2009]

The objectives of the Taliban are to subjugate women, make other religious or cultural people second-class, eliminate news coverage through censorship, and prevent the advancement of the overall populace.

I think religious fanatics in America pale in comparison.

Posted by finewoven

That is completly correct if you remove the word Taliban and replace it with the words Bush Administration.

[lovegetpeace]

Folks,
According to the experts on Afghanistan, the Talibans is getting financed mostly by the Americans that buy their narcotic drug opium.

Let shot all the Americans to beat the Taliban.

[lovegetpeace]

Folks,

On May 15, 1948, the American President advocated the creation of the State of Israel. 2 years later, 4.5 millions Palestanians were forced out of their homes and lands.

Is this Terrorism?

ps: my mother used to say "what goes around comes around"

[lovegetpeace]

Folks,

On May 15, 1948, the American President advocated the creation of the State of Israel. 2 years later, 4.5 millions Palestanians were forced out of their homes and lands.

Is this Terrorism?

[DDouville]

One cannot discount the resilience of Afghanistan''s insurgency, their soldiers have a long history of pushing out invaders, the former Soviet Union had a much larger military presence and look what happenned to them... These people have almost unlimited financial support. They are not planning on giving up. What a mess it is. I think we should have released Sadam instead of hanging him, and let him go back and run his country. OK, so he was barbaric in some ways, but some of these foreign countries are just not like the United States. They have a different way of handling problems, so what! We can''t police the whole planet when the risks so outweigh any potential benefit. Sadam Hussein ruled with an iron hand because he had to to survive. That''s how things work in some countries. Why can''t some of our top people understand that? There is even the possibility of some type of truce with Bin Laden, but it could never happen, it''s like Isreal and Palistine, there is just no turning back. It all got too dirty. It''s behind religion. The worst conflicts always involve religion. They never give up, like the Japaneese in WWII. We didn''t even have to build prison camps for the captured *** soldiers. They fought to the death. Why not try to make friends, instead of enemies? So stupid to have war on this beautiful planet. To kill. We should be able to live in harmony regardless of one''s race, religion, or creed. Why can''t people forgive and try to make peace? Would it be so bad if we did? Chow

[lovegetpeace]

Folks,
Whatever happened to "Mission Accomplished"

Also, when are Americans going to leave Afghanistan just like the Soviet Union did not too long ago?

[finewoven]

but the objective is the same as the Talibans.
Posted by leftyintexas at 02:14 PM : Feb 06, 2008

The objectives of the Taliban are to subjugate women, make other religious or cultural people second-class, eliminate news coverage through censorship, and prevent the advancement of the overall populace.

I think religious fanatics in America pale in comparison.

[prinzowhales]

Condumlizard Lice is just stating the obvious. Just keep that opium coming is the real battle cry of the Neo-Scum and their banker masters...American soldiers and Afghan civilians don''t cost the bankers a red cent...they''ve got a bunch of dumb-arse chumps paying the bills...the US taxpayers.

[lochlan-2009]

"Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has given a frank assessment of the challenges still facing Afghanistan seven years after the U.S. invasion to oust the Taliban and defeat Islamic extremism in the crucial country."

A frank statement from Condolezza Rice (former board member of Chevron with an oil tanker named after her) would say, we still need more troops to protect the pipeline we''re building through Afghanistan and Pakistan to India and the Arabian Sea for China. Iran is still a major threat to our profits on this pipeline since they have the ability to build a pipeline in their own country that would go straight from the Caspian Sea to The Arabian Sea. This would of course be bad for Chevron profits the company who purchased Unocal after CNOOC conveniently withdrew their bid. But you people here already know the real reason we are fighting the war on terror, especially the Bush propaganda guys. Let''s keep the rich rich at the expense of every working sheeple and soldier.

[finewoven]

The blame for any challenges there lie squarely on her shoulders and with anyone who continues to work for this administration without challenging its intellectual bankruptcy from within...
Posted by razzl at 11:43 AM : Feb 06, 2008

This administration has done way more on developing Afghanistan''s infrastructure than it is given credit for. The stability of their political and judicial processes, even as it integrates Shari''a law, has been a positive sign of Western powers'' open-mindedness to reform considering cultural differences. At some point, the adoption of a better governing process may include freedom of speech so that a person is not threatened with death for distributing an article that has a critial analysis of Islamic dogma. It may never happen, or with better education of the populace, it will happen in a generation or two.

[inventagod]

The liar''s mouthpiece keeps on babbling...

The Taliban moved to Washington...

[Razzl]

How can Rice even dare to bring up the subject of Afghanistan when it''s guaranteed that 100% of her audience know that all the challenges there stem from Bush/Cheney''s unwillingness to commit any US troops to finish the job? Even discussing the matter is to embarass oneself. The blame for any challenges there lie squarely on her shoulders and with anyone who continues to work for this administration without challenging its intellectual bankruptcy from within...