AFGHANISTAN

Documents & Texts from America.gov

23 January 2008
General Rodriguez Briefs on Afghanistan at Foreign Press Center

Afghanistan making progress in security, economic development, he says

(begin transcript)

STATE DEPARTMENT FOREIGN PRESS CENTER BRIEFING
SUBJECT: AFGHANISTAN UPDATE

BRIEFER: MAJOR GENERAL DAVID RODRIGUEZ, COMMANDER, 82ND AIRBORNE DIVISION AND REGIONAL COMMAND EAST

THE FOREIGN PRESS CENTER, WASHINGTON, D.C.
1:06 P.M. EST, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23, 2008

MODERATOR: Hello and welcome to the Washington Foreign Press Center. Today, we have for you Major General David Rodriguez, who's commander of the 82nd Airborne Division and also commander of {Afghanistan's} Regional Command East. He's going to deliver an Afghanistan update. If you could please turn off your cell phones and electronic devices at this time, thank you very much.

Here's the general.

GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Well, good afternoon. I'm Major General Rodriguez, as you stated, the commander of Regional Command East over in Afghanistan, and thank you for the opportunity to talk to you today about eastern Afghanistan and answer any questions you have.

As you've no doubt heard, there has been some controversy about the support by our European allies, and our experience at our level has been one of NATO contribution that is very positive. Our international allies are providing valuable support to the Afghan national security forces that is helping to increase their capacity every day.

In particular, we'd like to recognize some of the specific partners in Afghanistan who are helping to make progress. Partners like Poland, who sent a battle group to assist the people of Afghanistan, the Polish battle groups having a huge impact partnering with the Afghan security forces in the Paktika province -- that partnership has increased security for the Afghan citizens and increased the capacity of the security forces to plan and conduct operations. Partners like the Egyptian field hospital that is on Bagram Air Field right with us -- their contribution directly impacts over 3,000 Afghans a month. We all have also partners like New Zealand and Turkey providing Provincial Reconstruction Teams that work in the Bamian and Wardak provinces. And soon we'll welcome a new partner to Afghanistan; the Czech Republic will provide a Provincial Reconstruction Team in the Lowgar province.

Every day in eastern Afghanistan we see progress in development and governance. The Afghan national security forces are making progress bringing security to all Afghans. Afghanistan, with assistance from its international partners, is making progress in social infrastructure and economic development, and the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is making progress increasing their capacity to govern.

Yes, there are still challenges to be overcome before Afghanistan reaches the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals, but it is making steady progress toward these goals.

The Afghan National Army is showing an increasing capacity to lead. They're able to plan many operations.

And while they're still partnered, and there's a significance contribution by the coalition, they're leading the majority of the planning efforts at this point. They've also participated in all levels of operations to disrupt the insurgents and weaken their efforts.

The Afghan national police has begun its capacity to expand, just like the ANA, and the ANA is actually helping some of the police training, and also their influence, the ANA's influence, as a trusted institution, to hope to spread that success throughout the Afghan national police.

The national police progress will continue of course for a long couple years, and we're implementing a focus development plan right now to increase their capacity at the district level.

There are also many visible signs of progress and development in Afghanistan. The increase in traffic of course, in the majority of the provinces, and the rise of local businesses is one huge sign. It's been made possible by increases in security and reduced travel time, as well as a quickly developing transportation industry.

The illicit economy continues to grow very fast, and much faster of course than the narco-economy, which unfortunately is also growing.

Agricultural expansion and improvements in irrigation systems have had a huge positive effect. And for the first time in 10 years, the grain harvest was sufficient to meet consumption needs inside Afghanistan.

The government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is also making progress in governance. The emphasis on local governance has resulted in over 74 district centers, which are the center of government of each of the districts, functional, and that's been doubled since last summer.

This is a clear sign of the government's linkage to the outlying districts and linkage to the people.

The provincial development plans, which are produced once a year, were all produced in 2007, after only four plans were produced last year. So that's a significant increase in the talks about the cooperation and the capacity-building that occurs at the local government level. The provincial councils, who are also local government leaders, played an increasing role in that, as well as other crises that occur, whether it be flooding or some of the refugees that have just come over in the last, recent, last two weeks here.

Afghan citizens are noticing these improvements. The latest survey polls show that local communities fear -- feel that the police is continuing to improve and provide security. Of course, there's substantial improvement over that -- over the police which for a long time had gotten extremely poor marks, but they're moving in the right direction.

And that over 60 percent of the citizens feel that their provincial governor and government does fairly well. Again, more than half the population expresses satisfaction with the availability of medical care, drinking water and education, which is a huge increase from what it used to be a couple years ago.

While this shows that Afghanistan is definitely making progress, there are still challenges to overcome. The Afghan National Police, of course, have a long way to go to exploit the progress that they've made.

Corruption continues to be a problem in the government, but the Afghan people have had enough of that. And a clear sign of progress is the ability of the people to voice their frustration with corruption in their government. Not long ago, they had no ability to voice dissatisfaction.

And of course, there continues to be a widening gap between expectations that are arising faster than the ability of the government to develop.

But we believe in the long run that they'll continue to make progress and we can help them become a self-reliant, self-securing state committed to representative government. We have to continue to work on international support and expanded regional support and realistic objectives. And while this won't overnight -- will not happen overnight, we will continue to see slow, steady progress towards this end state for all.

With that, I'll take your questions. Thank you.

MODERATOR: Okay. For the Q&A portion, please state your name and publication and wait for the microphone, which can be coming from either side. We also may have to take questions from New York.

But please go ahead -- Neil, I think?

Q: Neil Macdonald, General, from CBC Television. You're no doubt aware that Canada has got a pretty significant contingent over there, and unlike a lot of the other contingents, Canadian soldiers are actually allowed to engage in combat, by their government. You might also be aware that the Canadian government is mulling how long to leave that contingent there.

And there was a report commissioned by the prime minister that recommended yesterday an indefinite extension of the mission, conditioned upon the Canadian troops being buttressed by combat troops from somewhere else. {Editor's note, the report is here: http://www3.thestar.com/static/PDF/080122_afghan_report.pdf}. And given that the United States is one of the only other countries that's allowed to engage in combat, I was wondering whether you might reflect on the recommendation that was made and whether you foresee American troops, Marines or otherwise, being deployed to buttress the Canadians down in the south.

GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Well, the -- first, obviously, we're proud to be partners with the Canadian Army out there, serving together. And they've done a tremendous job down there in a tough, tough area.

The Marines that are coming over there to support ISAF, in this case, will probably a big help down there in the south, to help that -- those challenging situations out. But I wouldn't comment on any of their specifics things, because they're all to be determined based on the conditions, like you said, that exist not only in RC South but as the government and the Afghan security forces develop and improve.

Just to give you a benchmark, you know, in next spring, there will be two more brigade combat teams alone just in Regional Command East from the Afghan national security forces. So as those capabilities increase, it's -- I think everybody will be doing a balancing act on how long they stay, with how much and how much that is able to help develop and support the development of the Afghan national security forces.

Q: Sir, might the Marines stay on past six months? Might the Marines stay on past six months? I think the Canadians are aware that the Marines are going them out in the south, but how long might the Marines stay? And might they be extended --

GEN. RODRIGUEZ: The --

Q: -- If the Canadian division is extended --

GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Those conditions -- they change over time. And as anything else, those decisions will get made over time. Right now I think the secretary says that that's, you know, one seven-month deployment at this point in time. But again, things change, so we'll just have to see. Okay? Thank you.

MODERATOR: Mike. Mike Kellerman.

Q: Thank you. Mike Kellerman, ATN Television. Thank you for coming, General.

General, I have couple questions. If I could, sir, I'll try to wrap them all into one question. Perhaps you can give me a nice, long answer.

First of all, this Canadian gentleman talked about the 3,000 U.S Marines that are coming over there. This is in relation to the spring offensive, which, as I understand, is expected by the Taliban against coalition forces. So I'd like -- if you could, talk to me about what you're doing to prepare for the so-called spring offensive.

And also, there was a report from a London think tank, a well- respected think tank, the other day that the West simply cannot win in Afghanistan. The Russians tried; the West does not. This is going on year after year.

Can I get your overview on where you see this going, in particular, the spring offensive, and how the American Marines might or might not help in this regard?

GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Well, the weather changes there make different activity levels occur. That's really what happens, so there's no -- I'm not a real believer in some big spring offensive, except for the offensive of the Afghan government in many areas. So things like schools, kids going to school, that starts there in 21st of March. So lots of kids going to school, lots of bright futures, lots of construction going on, lots of people in work.

And as they come out of the winter doldrums, to say that the challenges of the weather, that they come out, you know, they have a feeling of hope that they're moving forward to improve security, improve governance and developing services that people, and improved developments, so they have opportunities for their children. That's what the entire international community coalition is working on, to work as we head toward the better weather that comes in the spring.

As far as again the Marines going over to support ISAF's requirement to fill some more combat troops in RC South, and any time again you have some more combat forces, it provides you a huge opportunity to more quickly develop the Afghan security forces, because we partner with the Afghan security forces. So that just gives them a better opportunity to partner. And the more that you can partner, the faster you can build their capacity.

Q: Follow up by ATN. (Off mike.)

GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Okay.

Q: Let me just remind you. I know, it's a long, complicated question.

You know, that recent bomb blast at that five-star hotel in downtown Kabul, sort of, that made a lot of noise, not just in Kabul but around the world. This London think tank I asked you about that said that --

GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Oh, yeah.

Q: Yeah, about that, about the fact they said the West can't win. And I'd like your reaction to that. Can the West win?

GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Yes, the West can win. And what I think the difference is of the past things that have occurred in Afghanistan is we're -- you know, the West is not there to do something for themselves, they're there to do something for the Afghan people. The Afghan people understand that and realize that, and that's who are going to win the thing in the long term. So when you say the West can't win, figuratively speaking the West can't win, but the Afghan people can win, will win, and we will help support them win. So I think that's a different perspective from what he talked about historically happened in Afghanistan.

MODERATOR: I think we need to go to New York now for a question. New York, go ahead. Please state your name and publication.

Q: (Inaudible.)

MODERATOR: I'm sorry, New York, we're having trouble hearing you.

(Pause.) If you can e-mail the question to us, we'll read it out and give you an answer in the briefing. Just e-mail the question to Gordon Duguid. Thank you.

Sorry about that difficulty. Arshad, we'll go ahead.

Q: Thank you. General, my name is Arshad Mahmud, and I represent Prothom Alo, which is the largest newspaper in Bangladesh.

The things that you said about the improvement which is taking place in Afghanistan somewhat contradicts with the news reports and the surge of attacks, in recent attacks in Afghanistan in general and Kabul in particular. I'm pretty sure you saw the New York Times report about a month ago writing extensively about the newly constructed road between Kabul and Kandahar, and the report said that there is not much traffic because of the security concerns.

And you are saying that security has improved and the suicide attacks, including the five-star hotel attack recently -- and if you could kindly give us some -- actually, what's really happening on the ground, you know, to allay this kind of concern. And also I should point out that the former foreign minister Dr. Abdullah Abdullah was recently on "The Charlie Rose Show," and he also expressed deep concern about the success of this operation. Thank you.

GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Okay, thank you. Yeah, the Kabul to Kandahar road -- there have been several attacks against that, and again, many of these attacks are spectacular attacks. The other piece that's -- you have to carefully watch what goes on -- is many of them are just criminally based attacks, mainly to get money.

But since the middle of summer there or late summer there, when those attacks against the commerce and movement that was going on occurred, there's been a major action being taken care -- taken -- led by the Afghan National Police. So, for example, between Zabul and Kabul right now they've sent over 200 police out there to help out that problem. We, of course, have supported those operations. And I believe there were five attacks across the board on that road in our area in December, a couple of them being criminal activities, and there's been none in January at all.

So -- and as far as people driving out on the road, if you looked at the road, you would not see any difference than even in the middle of summer, when they were having those attacks. Some of the people, of course, get concerned because of -- they lack the confidence sometime there. But as far as commerce and those kind of things it continued, even through the challenging times when there were attacks out there on the road.

As far as security overall, people sometimes equate just number of attacks with overall security, and I think that's a -- that's not a whole measure of what's going on, because it's about the people and how they're doing and what they feel is going on, because what we have to do is change an attitude of fear and uncertainty in the people's mind and fill that with trust and confidence in their government and their security forces. And as far as the trust and confidence level, that continues to go up.

So the latest survey of the Afghan people, done by Afghans, was that about four out of five in RC East are confident and secure in their day-to-day activities. So there's -- like I said, there's a -- it's a complex operation over there. It's a complex situation to understand what's going on. And even in their complaints about security, many of it is about criminals and about drugs and things like that. So it's not always just about the Taliban.

Q: Thank you.

Part of the bigger strategy, I believe, is to earn the respect and win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people. That's how you win a situation like this. And that confidence of credibility between the United States and the Afghan people was destroyed largely by your abandonment after the 1979 --

GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Yes.

Q: -- Soviet pullback.

GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Yes.

Q: What you could accomplish -- with $2 billion you could actually transform that country and earn the respect and confidence of the Afghan people. They feel betrayed, and they have made it very clear in so many ways. To what extent you have been able to reestablish that credibility factor? Thank you.

GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, that's a great, great question. As you know, many of the Afghan have called us "half-time friends," and their ability to build trust and confidence that not only the U.S., but the whole international community is going to stay with them until the end is very, very important to each and every one of them.

I believe we've made a huge investment in building that trust and confidence in the Afghan people and the Afghan leadership. Our soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines are very, very well respected. They have great relationships with the Afghan security forces and the Afghan subnational governors and the provincial governors and their organizations. And so I think we've gone a long way to change that, and I believe it's growing confidence every day.

MODERATOR: Okay, we have a question from Icelandic Broadcasting.

Q: Thank you, sir. My name is Bjorn Malmquist. I'm from Icelandic National Broadcasting. Two questions.

How would you, in general, describe the situation in Kabul?

And my second question is, my country, Iceland, has a tiny, a tiny group of people working there -- 10 to 15 people in the country, I think -- given that we don't have any army. How do you see the role of small nations within NATO in Afghanistan develop as time goes on? Thank you.

MODERATOR: Okay.

GEN. RODRIGUEZ: First of all, the situation in Kabul is very, very good overall. Of course, the spectacular attacks that occur create a lot of fear in people's minds.

But as far as Kabul, I've been there about a year, and Kabul continues to look better. There's more people in the streets. There's -- the markets are all open, and the people travel around there with a lot of confidence in the security, despite the fact, again, that they've been

-- several suicide bombs, more than they've ever had this past year. But despite that, they -- the city continues to thrive and grow.

As far as contributions of small nations, you know, the long-term solution to Afghanistan continues to be about the long-term development of governance all the way up and down, from the central government down to the local governments, as well as economic development and opportunities. Places that many, many nations contribute to is education, which has had a huge turnaround in the last six-and-a-half-seven years here. So there are many, many places to contribute in the development side that small nations could do with expertise.

It's -- of course, it's a huge farming economy, so growth and development of some of the farming skills is critical to Afghan development of economic vitality. So there are plenty of ways for nations large and small to contribute to this effort.

On the schools I just want to highlight a couple of things in schools just to -- as you know, in the past, many of the school children left the country to go to school because they didn't have the opportunity to go to school. And now in RC East over 90 percent of the boys go to school in state-sponsored schools, and over almost 70 percent of the girls do. And also the latest poll will tell you that when asked where they would like to send their kids to school, 98 percent of the people polled said they'd like to send them to schools in Afghanistan that are state-sponsored schools and only 2 percent would rather send them somewhere else. Now that's been a huge difference in the last four years here as they've built their education capacity.

So again, those are some of the -- and you won't see the immediate impact of that on security, but long term that's going to have a huge positive effect in my mind.

Yeah?

Q: Hi. My name is Toshiya Umehara from the Asahi Shimbun, Japanese newspaper.

Could you address the issue of Pakistan -- because I believe your area of responsibility has a border with Pakistan -- and to what extent your

-- the difficulties or the problems you encounter have sort of a cross-border nature? And also, have you had any -- have you seen any change in terms of those problems in light of recent political upheaval in Pakistan?

GEN. RODRIGUEZ: The -- first of all, what we do is, we conduct mil-to-mil contacts, military to military, along that border, to help develop that -- the capacity in both the Afghans and the whole challenge across the border. It's a challenging situation on both sides of the border. Both Afghanistan and Pakistan understand the challenge. It's a common challenge to both of them, and they're both trying to help improve that security on that border.

And like you said, we conduct mil-to-mil relationships, military to military, between us and the Pakistani military, as well as the Frontier Corps, on that border, to try to help the communication and coordination to disrupt the flow of insurgents back and forth across that border.

In the last 18 months or so, we've developed good communication networks with radios, so that we can communicate back and forth, military to military. And we've also -- we hold coordination meetings with them, on a weekly basis at a lower level and at a monthly basis at my level, to coordinate those efforts on both sides of the border to help stem the flow of insurgents going back and forth across.

The Pakistani military leadership that we work with is committed to solve the problem, again, because it's a common problem for both countries. And we're working very close on that with them.

MODERATOR: Okay.

Q: (Off mike.)

GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Any -- oh, I'm -- excuse -- you had a second question there, about any change. Yes, in the very recent past here, there's been a decrease in the amounts of border incidents on the border.

I think that's, it's actually lower than even the seasonal averages from the past year.

I think that's attributive to several things. One is, you know, the winter weather of course contributes to part of that. The instability in Pakistan contributes to part of that, and this is an opportunistic enemy, so they're going to go and conduct operations wherever they have the best opportunity. And right now with the political situation, of course, there are some challenges for this point in time in Pakistan over there.

We've also had some success in interdicting them in certain areas over the past several months. The Afghan national border police have improved their capacity and have more effective checkpoints in several places across the border. So I think a combination of all those things have started to make a difference as well, of course, as Pakistan's continuing efforts to decrease that flow.

MODERATOR: Okay, we have time for one final question, which is from New York via e-mail from Pajhwok Afghan News. It returns to the Canadian question that was raised earlier:

The independent panel of Canada's future in Afghanistan, in its report, recommended a conditional extension of Canada's military mission to Afghanistan. The condition is deployment of 1,000 NATO troops. Do you think this is feasible? Would NATO allies be willing to spare 1,000 troops to Southern Afghanistan, as demanded by this Canadian panel?

GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Well, I think, again that's for the NATO countries to determine that, whether they can afford to support and sustain that many troops additional. As you know, there has been a request out to NATO for some troops, and the United States of course filled part of that with the Marines this time. And we'll just have to see how that goes, but again that's a question for the nations of NATO, not the military.

But again the conditions that exist on the ground, and how everybody looks at this, is each country's own positions. And we'll just continue again to work with everybody who's over there to help move this process forward. So thank you very much.

MODERATOR: Okay. Thank you. This event is now concluded. If you have a question that you didn't have time for, please relay it to me and we'll see what we can do. Thanks a lot.

GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Thank you very much.

(end transcript)

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

back to top ^