former defense secretary robert gates on the future of afghanistan
this week on 60 minutes we talked with former defense secretary robert gates who oversaw the
wars in iraq and afghanistan for nearly five years this past june before the troop withdrawal gates
wrote an op-ed saying we cannot turn our backs on afghanistan you wrote about afghanistan you wrote
why should we assume that they'll no longer harbor al-qaeda and other terrorist groups that seek
to target those above all the united states that ousted them from power and have been fighting them
for 20 years i mean do you believe afghanistan under the taliban is it could become a terrorist
state i think we should worry a lot about it and i think i ironically i think the russians and
the chinese worry a lot about it and you know the chinese have sought explicit commitments
from the taliban that they won't allow terrorist organizations to operate no i think it's a very
real worry the taliban have never disavowed their relationship with al qaeda and they haven't done
it since they took power they've lied repeatedly i mean at the negotiating table yeah and i don't
see why anybody could rely on the taliban to do anything very constructive from our standpoint
does the us have leverage now over the taliban well i'm not sure what we do at this point i mean
we do have the leverage of the money but i think i think in some ways the administration may be over
confident that that the taliban will think the money is determinative i
think that the taliban are likely to get a fair amount of assistance from china
probably from russia probably from iran and the u.n is going to do some humanitarian
things in terms of prospective famine and and so on in the country but the one thing about these
despotic authoritarian leaders whether it's saddam hussein or the taliban or the ayatollah they don't
much care what happens to the people in their country it's about power getting it and keeping it
and to think they will make significant compromises in their objectives in order to
gain access to monies the united states holds i'm not sure that's a bet i'd take when he was defense
secretary gates was behind president obama's controversial decision to send a surge of 47
000 u.s troops into afghanistan in 2009 and 2010 the goal was to try to reverse taliban
gains and we wondered knowing what he knows now what does he think of that decision was
the surge a mistake no i don't think so i i think i would make the same recommendation today because
it did improve the security situation in in afghanistan and particularly in the areas
where the taliban had been the most active really seriously improved the security situation
the surge in iraq basically created a situation where normal life could take place because the
security situation had improved sufficiently more or less the iraqis took at least some
advantage of the opportunity that the sacrifices of our troops presented them
i think what happened after the surge in afghanistan was that the afghans
were unable to do the same in terms of creating a sustainable environment the corruption of the
government the incompetence of the government really prevented the government from ever gaining
traction with a lot of people in the country but i think that the surge was necessary because the
security environment was getting significantly worse in afghanistan by the end of 2006.
it was either the surge or continue on a path that was not leading anywhere but an improved security
situation is not a victory did you see signs that a win was possible that for me for for me a win
was enabling the afghan government to be strong enough to defend itself against the taliban
period in an interview in 60 minutes in 2011 you said we're getting the upper hand i think we could
be in a position by the end of this year 2011 where we have turned the corner in afghanistan
it's a little bit like the light at the end of the tunnel i think at the end of 2011
or in 2011 we were seeing the benefits of that surge and and what what we didn't realize is that
those gains would last only as long as the u.s kept that kind of a force in there