The United States is welcoming the signing of a delayed Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) with Afghanistan Tuesday as “an important step in strengthening the strategic partnership between the two countries.” The signing of the agreement comes just three months before U.S. and NATO forces officially end combat operations.
John Podesta, a senior adviser to President Obama, welcomed the agreement, which is expected to keep a smaller U.S./NATO force in Afghanistan beyond the December 31 end of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) combat mission after 13 years.
“The Bilateral Security Agreement provides the legal framework for the United States to continue to train, advise and assist the Afghan national security forces, so terrorists can never use Afghanistan to launch attacks against the U.S. or its allies. The continuation of our security partnership will help Afghanistan preserve its progress in education, health care, human rights and economic opportunity,” said Podesta.
Talks on the security agreement began in November 2012 with a stated goal of reaching an agreement by May 2013. However, negotiations with former President Hamid Karzai proved difficult and he refused to sign it, preferring his successor do so. Afghanistan’s contentious election process further delayed the signing.
RAND Corporation South Asia analyst Arturo Munoz said one of the difficult issues was the role the force would have in future combat operations.
“People were adamant for years that it would not have a combat role that their main mission would be to support the Afghan armed forces and provide them with additional training with advice. One big unresolved question was that this stay behind force would include a commando element that would continue do to raids against suspected terrorists. For the Afghans, this was a hot-button issue; foreign troops breaking down the doors of Afghan homes at night to do raids against suspected terrorists. The accusation was sometimes the intelligence wasn’t good and broke into the wrong house,” said Munoz.
Munoz said the solution is to embed the U.S./NATO forces with Afghan security forces, who would take the lead in any such operation.
A similar Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) is expected to be signed by the new government with NATO, leaving an as-yet undetermined residual force in the country at the start of 2015.
The Obama administration said the reduced force will have as its twin objectives training Afghan forces and running counterterrorism operations against al-Qaida. Administration officials say the U.S. presence will be reduced by about half at the end of 2015 by consolidating troops in Kabul and at Bagram airfield. By the end of 2016, the military will draw down to a normal embassy presence in Kabul providing equipment and advice.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki was asked Monday if the U.S. force, expected to number about 9,800 after 2014, will be able to successfully help Afghan security forces neutralize the Taliban.
“There is the training component of this that has been ongoing. And, as you know, Afghans have been in the lead, and we are continuing to implement that in the months ahead. We felt committed and felt so strongly about moving forward, of course, with the conclusion of this political situation, as well as the signing of the BSA, so we could continue to have that partnership. Obviously, it has to be implemented, and we need to continue to work closely together to achieve a successful outcome,” said Psaki.
Munoz said the importance of the continued presence of NATO and U.S. troops goes beyond their military role.
“Not only in terms of the military advice and training, which is their main function, but the fact that they’re there also gives assurance to all the Western donors who are contributing money to the Afghan government that there’s going to be stability and that the Afghan government is not going to adopt an anti-Western position kind of like Iraq did,” said Munoz.
Another RAND Corporation South Asia analyst, Jonah Blank, said the U.S./NATO force is crucial as the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban remains intense.
“The fact that the U.S. and other partner nations will be present doesn’t suggest that this is going to be an easy fight. This year, the Taliban killed more Afghan soldiers and police than it has in any year since it fell from power, and there are no signs that it is easing up,” said Blank.
Blank said the real test for the U.S./NATO force left behind is whether it can succeed in helping Afghan security forces keep Afghanistan from becoming an ungoverned space again and returning to what he called “the bad days” of the 1990s, when the Taliban took control. They were, he said, bad not just for the international community, but for the Afghan people.
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