Hearing of the House Armed Services Committee - U.S. Strategy and Operations in Afghanistan and the Way Ahead

Statement

Hearing of the House Armed Services Committee - U.S. Strategy and Operations in Afghanistan and the Way Ahead

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REP. GENE TAYLOR (D-MS): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Lieutenant General Barno, I was curious -- you said if several factors occur, then you would have success in Afghanistan. I would be curious to hear how you would define success in Afghanistan, and I would be curious how the other two members of the panel would react to your definition.

MR. BARNO: I've actually sketched out a few thoughts on that that I can share.

One is I think success equals a stable, sustainable Afghan government that's broadly representative of the people of Afghanistan.

Secondly, I think regionally success equals Pakistan stabilized as a long-term regional partner friendly to the United States and in control of its military and its nuclear weapons.

Third, I'd say having regional states around Afghanistan confident about U.S. staying power and commitment as their partner in a war on violent extremism in the region.

Fourth, I think the Taliban and al Qaeda defeated in the region and denied usable sanctuary in this part of the world, and that further attacks against the United States and our friends are prevented.

And then finally, I think the final objective defining success would be a NATO presence that's re-cast into a sustainable set of objectives that NATO can be able to be a part of over the long term in Afghanistan.

So that's a few ticks, I think, in terms of what success might look like.

REP. TAYLOR: Dr. Rubin?

MR. RUBIN: Well, if I -- just to refine that a little bit.

A government in Afghanistan to be stable is going to require foreign assistance for a long time; it always has required foreign assistance for as long as it has existed within these borders. For that foreign assistance to stabilize it, there must be a political agreement among the major powers and the regional powers to support the government and not to support other armed contenders for power. Therefore, there has to be some kind of regional security arrangement of the type that Ambassador Inderfurth was talking about.

Our forces there may be necessary to stabilize it, but whether our forces are stabilizing or in the long term destabilizing depends on how they are perceived by Afghanistan's neighbors. If they perceive our forces as using Afghanistan as a base for destabilizing others in the area such as Iran, or for power projection into other areas such as Central Asia, then they will not want U.S. forces to play a stabilizing role.

So it's not only about what we can do to them but also how we relate to them politically; it is ultimately a political issue.

REP. TAYLOR: Mr. Ambassador?

MR. INDERFURTH: Well, I would agree with those definitions of success. I do want to say one thing, that success does not mean, in my mind, a narcotics-free Afghanistan. We're not going to see that. We can see a turning of the corner on that problem. It keeps going up -- 92 percent of the world's opium comes out of Afghanistan, and it may be higher this year. It's become a sole-source supplier to the world. That corner has to be turned, but it will have to take years to do it. Thailand took decades to reach their point of moving away from a reliance on narcotics; alternative livelihoods took years to take hold.

So it's not going to be a narcotics-free Afghanistan and it's not going to be an insurgency-free Afghanistan. There may be long-term Taliban elements, extremist elements, but taking into account the ability of the international community and the United States to have a long-term commitment, including the kind of foreign assistance that's necessary, including a continuing effort to make the region of Afghanistan -- as I mentioned in my remarks -- one that will ensure a neutrality for that country.

There are a lot of things that can be defined as success, but it's not going to eliminate all the problems we see today.

REP. TAYLOR: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.

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