Senior US diplomat Richard Holbrooke has acknowledged that institution-building in Afghanistan would have to start "from scratch" in the ninth year of engagement, in an interview published Wednesday. Holbrooke, special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, told Germany's daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung that international co-operation since the deployment in Afghanistan in 2001 had often been chaotic.
"The issue of responsibilities was difficult. The British were to have dealt with drugs, the Germans with training and the Italians with the justice system," he said, in remarks published in German.
"The whole thing was uncoordinated and did not get us very far. The upshot is that in the ninth year of the war we are starting from scratch." Holbrooke said the top priority in the strife-wracked country was the training of Afghan security forces. "That is the only way we will be able to withdraw the allied troops in a reasonable amount of time," he said.