The broad outlines of two cables from the ambassador, Karl W. Eikenberry, became public within days after he sent them, and they were portrayed as having been the source of significant discussion in the White House, heightening tensions between diplomats and senior military officers, who supported an increase of 30,000 American troops. <\/font><\/p>\n But the full cables, obtained by The New York Times, show for the first time just how strongly the current ambassador felt about the leadership of the Afghan government, the state of its military and the chances that a troop buildup would actually hurt the war effort by making the Karzai government too dependent on the United States. <\/font><\/p>\n The cables \u2014 one four pages, the other three \u2014 also represent a detailed rebuttal to the counterinsurgency strategy offered by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, who had argued that a rapid infusion of fresh troops was essential to avoid failure in the country.<\/font><\/p>\n They show that Mr. Eikenberry, a retired Army lieutenant general who once was the top American commander in Afghanistan<\/strong>, repeatedly cautioned that deploying sizable American reinforcements would result in \u201castronomical costs<\/strong>\u201d \u2014 tens of billions of dollars \u2014 and would only deepen the dependence of the Afghan government on the United States. <\/font><\/p>\n \u201cSending additional forces will delay the day when Afghans will take over, and make it difficult, if not impossible, to bring our people home on a reasonable timetable,\u201d he wrote Nov. 6. \u201cAn increased U.S. and foreign role in security and governance will increase Afghan dependence, at least in the short-term<\/strong>.\u201d <\/font><\/p>\n Without offering details, Mr. Eikenberry has said in public hearings since then that his concerns have been dealt with, and that he supported the White House\u2019s troop increase plan.<\/font><\/p>\n But it is not clear what might have changed about his assessment of President Karzai as a reliable partner, and the strong language of the cables may increase tensions between the ambassador and the Karzai government, especially as world leaders meet in London on Thursday to discuss a much-debated Afghan plan to reintegrate Taliban fighters. It also coincides with a strong effort by the administration to mend ties with Mr. Karzai.<\/font><\/p>\n An American official provided a copy of the cables to The Times after a reporter requested them. The official said it was important for the historical record that Mr. Eikenberry\u2019s detailed assessments be made public, given that they were among the most important documents produced during the debate that led to the troop buildup. <\/font><\/p>\n On Nov. 6, Mr. Eikenberry wrote: \u201cPresident Karzai is not an adequate strategic partner. The proposed counterinsurgency strategy assumes an Afghan political leadership that is both able to take responsibility and to exert sovereignty in the furtherance of our goal \u2014 a secure, peaceful, minimally self-sufficient Afghanistan hardened against transnational terrorist groups. <\/font><\/p>\n \u201cYet Karzai continues to shun responsibility for any sovereign burden, whether defense, governance or development. He and much of his circle do not want the U.S. to leave and are only too happy to see us invest further,\u201d Mr. Eikenberry wrote. \u201cThey assume we covet their territory for a never-ending \u2018war on terror\u2019 and for military bases to use against surrounding powers<\/strong>.\u201d <\/font><\/p>\n He continued, \u201cBeyond Karzai himself, there is no political ruling class that provides an overarching national identity that transcends local affiliations and provides reliable partnership.\u201d <\/font><\/p>\n In a second cable, dated Nov. 9, he expressed new concerns: \u201cIn a PBS interview on November 7, Karzai sounded bizarrely cautionary notes about his willingness to address governance and corruption. This tracks with his record of inaction or grudging compliance in this area.\u201d <\/font><\/p>\n On Monday, Mr. Eikenberry declined through an embassy spokeswoman, Caitlin M. Hayden, to comment on the cables and his views on Mr. Karzai. She said by e-mail, \u201cWe stand by what we provided during the review process, which got us to the clear strategy we\u2019re now implementing, that the ambassador unequivocally supports.\u201d <\/font><\/p>\n In his memos, Mr. Eikenberry raised other concerns. He said he had serious doubts about the ability of the Afghan police and military forces to take over security duties in the country by 2013. \u201cThe Army\u2019s high attrition and low recruitment rates for Pashtuns in the south are crippling,\u201d he wrote. \u201cSimply keeping the force at current levels requires tens of thousands of new recruits every year to replace attrition losses and battlefield casualties.\u201d <\/font><\/p>\n The ambassador, who left the military last April to become Mr. Obama\u2019s emissary, also complained about an inadequate civilian counterpart organization to the NATO military command in Afghanistan. Nearly three months later, he is still expressing concerns about too few civilian experts in Afghanistan. <\/font><\/p>\n He also noted worries that the success of Mr. Obama\u2019s Afghanistan policy hinged on Pakistani forces\u2019 eliminating militants\u2019 havens in the mountainous region near the Afghan border. <\/font><\/p>\n \u201cPakistan will remain the single greatest source of Afghan instability so long as the border sanctuaries remain<\/strong>,\u201d he wrote. \u201cUntil this sanctuary problem is fully addressed, the gains from sending additional forces may be fleeting.\u201d <\/font><\/p>\n \u201cAs we contemplate greatly expanding our presence in Afghanistan, the better answer to our difficulties could well be to further ratchet up our engagement in Pakistan,\u201d he wrote without elaboration. <\/font><\/p>\n On Nov. 9, he repeatedly warned against rushing into a large deployment of more American forces without further study… [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Inserted from <NY Times<\/a>><\/p>\n Like a traditional general, Eikenberry made his points and, now that the administration chose the opposite path, has shut up to follow his orders. The unfortunate thing is that Eikenberry was right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Before Obama decided to give the Bush\/GOP generals, McChrystal and Petraeus, what they wanted, we knew that the US Ambassador to Afghanistan had grave concerns. Now we know what they were. The United States ambassador in Kabul warned his superiors here in November that President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan \u201cis not an adequate strategic partner\u201d […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"eichenberry\"](\"http:\/\/s217.photobucket.com\/albums\/cc83\/TomCat1948or2\/Blog%202010\/J-M\/EikenberryCablesRevealed_22C6\/eichenberry.jpg\" "\\"eichenberry\\"")
<\/a> The United States ambassador in Kabul warned his superiors here in November that President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan \u201cis not an adequate strategic partner<\/strong>\u201d and \u201ccontinues to shun responsibility for any sovereign burden<\/strong>,\u201d according to a classified cable that offers a much bleaker accounting of the risks of sending additional American troops to Afghanistan than was previously known. <\/font><\/p>\n