A US 'proconsul' in Afghanistan

When President Hamid Karzai chose to stand up this week to Afghanistan's most powerful warlord, Defense Minister Marshal Mohammed Fahim, he did so with the confidence that the US-led coalition here would keep the general's sizable militia in check.

As NATO forces stepped up patrols in Kabul, the peaceful announcement of Mr. Karzai's bold decision to bypass the defense chief as a vice presidential candidate was welcomed by one man in particular: top American officer Lt. Gen. David Barno.

"Rejection of violence and the recognition that peaceful changes are executed through the ballot boxes are both marks of an emerging democracy," General Barno told the Monitor on Wednesday. "Military action of any type is absolutely inappropriate in this evolving and maturing democratic political structure," he stressed.

Combining a soldier's focus with a diplomat's finesse, Barno has, over the last nine months, molded a new, holistic approach to Afghanistan aimed at strengthening the central government against challenges from warlords and insurgents alike. In essence, he's turned a faltering, combat-centric US military strategy on its head - and taken on a role beyond the usual scope of a US military commander.

Political progress, not sweeping infantry offensives, is the measuring stick of success in Afghanistan today, he says.

"Our main effort, as we'll call it in military terms, is for the election... to be successful in the fall," Barno said in an earlier interview in his spartan Kabul office. "We are fighting a classic counter-insurgency campaign here - it does not have a kinetic solution to it."

A methodical and unpretentious West Point graduate, Barno acts more as mediator than commander - more proconsul than three-star general. He resides in the American embassy compound in Kabul, an hour's drive from the sprawling and heavily fortified US military base at Bagram.

He begins each day with a tête-à-tête with US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, and meets a constant stream of Afghan leaders, UN officials, and foreign dignitaries.

As political tensions mounted this week, Barno and Mr. Khalilzad met daily with key leaders to reinforce "the importance of peaceful means of change," he told the Monitor, as the US military monitored the situation "for any changes or increase in tension."

"The political process underway, leading to both Presidential and Parliamentary elections is the right outlet for all expressions of differences," he says.

He also held a string of meetings with everyone from the chief of staff of the Afghan defense ministry to the commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul and the senior UN representative.

Ensuring a smooth presidential election on Oct. 9 is the primary aim of a new military operation Barno launched this month. Thousands of US soldiers, Afghan National Army (ANA) troops, and police are stepping up patrols and targeted raids in the south and east to stem deadly attacks by insurgents seeking to disrupt voter registration and the election. The US military has also been flying Afghan and UN election officials to far-flung reaches of the country and protecting them with US troops in an effort to widen grassroots participation and set up voter registration and polling sites.

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