STEVE INSKEEP, host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
The American ambassador to Afghanistan is stepping down this month, and Karl Eikenberry has a unique perspective on that country. He first arrived there as an Army general, returned to command all American troops, and finally came back again as America's top diplomat.
He's leaving behind a still politically troubled and dangerous country, but also a place that's made great strides. Millions of children and girls back in school, plus a new national army that's earned the respect of its country.
When we reached Ambassador Eikenberry at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, I asked him to look back to the moment his link to Afghanistan was forged on the morning of 9/11.
Ambassador KARL EIKENBERRY (U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan): I was in the Pentagon when American Airlines flight 77 that had been taken over by the terrorists crashed into the Pentagon just below my office, and several of my colleagues were killed in the tragedy. I never dreamed on that day that over the next ten years I would spend five of those in Afghanistan serving in three different capacities.
When I first came here in the fall of 2002, the country had had two decades of warfare, which culminated with the Taliban occupation, and with their alliance with al-Qaida. And as I looked about the country at that point, although there was hope that there could be a better future, the conditions were absolutely desperate.
Very few children in school, the absence of any kind of healthcare, the government just trying to put itself back together. There was joy that the international community and the United States had come to liberate their country, and as they looked to the future, hopeful that the international community would remain with them for many years ahead.
MONTAGNE: Well, the international community did make a commitment to that effect in - over a couple of big international gatherings in that time. If we move forward a little bit to 2005, 2006, you've come back. You would have come back to Afghanistan as the top U.S. military commander.
I remember from 2006 you made a point of getting out into the countryside, taking with you on every trip a minister - a government minister or members of parliament. The idea being for you to introduce them really to local councils and local leaders.
Why was that so important to you?
Amb. EIKENBERRY: Well, it was really, as you described it, Renee, an effort to help the central government of Afghanistan to try to connect to their own people. The Afghan people, throughout the course of Soviet occupation, civil war, the Taliban, they had lost complete trust in any kind of state institutions.
So trying to take ministers out into the provinces, out into the regions, connect with their people. If I described the first tour of duty as one arriving and just helping the Afghans recover from the ashes, my second time was helping to build the foundations of the state.
MONTAGNE: It was in late 2005 and through 2006 that one could say the Taliban returned with a vengeance. As the top American general at that time, did you realize quite what was happening?
Amb. EIKENBERRY: Not initially, Renee. What we accomplished in 2001, 2002, with a very limited amount of special forces and conventional forces, is with extraordinary rapidity we were able to put al-Qaida, which had opened camps here in Afghanistan, which was able to plot the 9/11 attack against the United States of America. We were able to put them to flight within a remarkably short period of time.
But in hindsight, what we did not do is we did not defeat al-Qaida. We did not defeat the Taliban commanding control. And slowly they started to re-establish their headquarters, and from sanctuaries in Pakistan then began to reassert their military operations back into Afghanistan.
And that then takes us forward to 2009. President Obama coming into office, reassessing our campaign in Afghanistan, and reaching the conclusion that we had under-resourced the effort. That's what leads to the surge, and that's what leads then to, I believe, success that we've enjoyed against al-Qaida over the last year.
MONTAGNE: But Mr. Ambassador, initially though, you had serious reservations about the military surge, even in fact argued against it in cables to the White House which were leaked during that debate back in 2009, as to whether troops should be sent into Afghanistan.
One of your concerns - and because these were secret cables, you were quite frank about that concern - was with President Karzai. And in one cable, you said he had an inability to grasp the most rudimentary principles of state building.
Has that in fact hurt the success that has been gained at a military level?
Amb. EIKENBERRY: Yeah. Well, first, Renee, I always make the point when people talk about the leaked cables that, by policy, my response to that always is the so-called leaked cables or the alleged cables.
Now, there was concern expressed by many about the endgame, so to speak, in Afghanistan. I would not want to be the president of Afghanistan. I think it's probably the most difficult job in the world. However, in this very difficult environment, there are bound to be very sharp differences about the way to proceed.
But at the end of the day, what impresses me that here in 2011, we still have got a broad agreement with the Afghan government or the Afghan people about what are we trying to achieve here. We're trying to achieve an Afghanistan that's hardened enough to provide security to the people, provide services to the people; to deny any space for radical militant extremism and international terrorism to come back into the country.
So my goal is not to have a perfect relationship. Perfect relationships exist in heaven; they certainly don't exist in Afghanistan. I've traveled a lot in this country. I've been to all 34 provinces. I've walked in a lot of bazaars. When I drive through the streets of Kabul, about 50 percent of the people will look and recognize me and give me a thumbs-up - that matters a lot to me. I think it matters a lot to the American people.
(Soundbite of music)
MONTAGNE: Speaking to us from the American Embassy in Kabul, the outgoing U.S. ambassador, Karl Eikenberry.
Thank you very much for talking with us.
Amb. EIKENBERRY: Renee, thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.