It’s not often that OC’s right wing Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and centralist Democrat Rep. Loretta Sanchez meet on major issues. It’s even less frequent that they join in Criticizing the Obama Administration, not to mention a joint statement to that affect. Nevertheless, apparently that’s exactly what happened on Monday.
We write “apparently,” Because we did not get any answers from Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s office to confirm her position on the published reports. The press coverage on this issue comes primarily from a news release distributed by Rep. Rohrabacher’s office. In that release, he cites concurrence by the members of the congressional delegation, which included Sanchez.
Rohrabacher’s release has essentially two parts. The first section is quotes attributed exclusively to Rohrabacher. The second part of the release is a “joint policy statement.” At the end of this statement, the names of the four members of congress are listed, suggesting agreement with the statement. Since Sanchez’s office must be aware of the release, and since they did not disown the so called “joint policy statement,” or Rohrabacher’s remarks, we take this to mean Sanchez supports the release in its entirety.
The basic issues involved are the trustworthiness of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and the wisdom of including the Taliban in Afghanistan’s coalition government. Four Members of the U.S. Congress , plus four Afghan leaders of the newly formed “National Front,” met on January 9, 2012 in Berlin, Germany, to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.
Following this meeting, which was not sanctioned by the U.S. State Department, Rep. Rohrabacher issued his press release.
This release is strongly critical of the approach currently undertaken by the Obama Administration to create a stable enough situation in Afghanistan so the U.S. can withdraw our combat forces by the end of 2014. The Berlin meeting comes about a week after the Taliban announced they were opening a political office in Qatar to hold talks with the U.S.
“The Afghans and Members of Congress meeting in Berlin today have concluded that there is a serious concern the blood and treasure invested in Afghanistan over this last decade may well have been in vain,” said Rohrabacher in his Monday statement. “The overly centralized government power structure in Afghanistan is contrary to that country’s culture and has inhibited progress toward building a stable and democratic society there.
“The incompetence and corruption of Karzai’s government has now brought serious consideration to accepting the Taliban as part of the coalition government, this would be a betrayal of those Americans who shed their blood in the last decade, as well as, a sellout of the brave Afghans in the North Alliance who cast their lot with us after 9/11 in order to defeat the Taliban dictatorship. All participants in this meeting agreed that if the Taliban wants to participate in running for democratic office, they should be permitted to do so, but they should not be included in a back room deal among power brokers so that they would hold some kind of authority and power in an upcoming Afghan government.”
Rohrabacher‘s statement did not specifically indicate the other congressional representatives agreed exactly with these quotes. But, the next part of the release is pretty clear in the suggestion that all present at the meeting agreed with the joint policy statement.
Here is this part of Rohrabacher‘s release:
“Upon conclusion of the briefing, both groups issued the following joint policy statement:
‘We call for a national dialogue on a revised Constitution to correct the inherent flaws in the present power structure by decentralizing the political system, making it more compatible with the diverse political, social and cultural nature of Afghanistan. The Afghan people deserve and need a parliamentary form of democracy instead of a personality-centered Presidential system.
‘We firmly believe that any negotiation with the Taliban can only be acceptable, and therefore effective, if all parties to the conflict are involved in the process. The present form of discussions with the Taliban is flawed, as it excludes anti-Taliban Afghans. It must be recalled that the Taliban extremists and their Al-Qaeda supporters were defeated by Afghans resisting extremism with minimal human embedded support from the United States and International community. The present negotiations with the Taliban fail to take into account the risks, sacrifices and legitimate interests of the Afghans who ended the brutal oppression of all Afghans.
‘In order to speed the withdrawal of international forces, the participants believe it is essential to strengthen regional and national institutions that are inclusive and represent the concerns of all the communities of Afghanistan.
‘The participants favor a change in the Electoral System from a Single Non Transferable Vote System to a nationally accepted variant of the Proportional Representation system with equal opportunities for both independent candidates, the political parties, or tribal representatives. We also support the election of Governors and empowerment of provincial councils. Such elected Governors and provincial councils should also have authority for such things as creating budgets and generating revenue, overseeing police and healthcare, as well as establishing educational authority, if they so desire.’
Mr. Ahmed Zia Massoud, Chairman, National Front
General Abdul Rashid Dostum, Leader, National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan
Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq, Leader, People´s Unity Party of Afghanistan
Mr. Amrullah Saleh, Former Director, Afghan National Security Directorate
Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-California)
Representative Loretta Sanchez (D-California)
Representative Louie Gohmert (R-Texas)
Representative Steve King (R-Iowa)”
(End of Rohrabacher statement)
Of course it is nothing surprising, or even newsworthy, that Rep. Rohrabacher would be relatively unrestrained in his criticism of the Obama Administration. It is, however, a little surprising that Rep. Sanchez would follow suit. In the daily Department of State press briefing, the question of the congressional delegation was put to Spokesperson Victoria Nuland. Here’s the transcript from the 1/9/2012 daily press briefing:
QUESTION: There’s a congressional delegation in Germany today meeting with members of the Northern Alliance. Does the State Department have a view on these meetings?
MS. NULAND: Well, obviously, it’s within the right and purview of members of Congress to meet with international actors wherever and whenever they want to do that. We did advise our members of Congress who are in Berlin that we believe it is always better to meet Afghan representatives in Afghanistan and that we also believe it’s always best when our members of Congress can see a broad cross-section of Afghan political leaders, not just a slice. But as I said, it’s within their right to meet with whomever they’d like.
QUESTION: So when this delegation says that their meeting’s going ahead over the objections of the State Department, you’re saying that’s not that this meeting is taking place at all; it’s just the location and the exact itinerary of the delegation?
MS. NULAND: Yeah, and again, this isn’t a matter of objecting or not objecting, it’s a matter of giving our view that we wanted to see the CODEL benefit from talking to Afghans of all stripes, not just one slice, and that we thought it would be good if they could go to Afghanistan. They were not – it didn’t work out this time, but that’s where we are with that.
(End of transcript)
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About Dolores Barr, Publisher
Dolores Barr has lived in Rossmoor since 1992 and has created this site to provide local news for the people of Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Rossmoor, Leisure World, Sunset Beach, and Surfside, California. My husband and I have had two students graduate from the Los Alamitos Unified School District and currently our Grandson, Ricky Apodaca, grade 3 at Weaver Elementary, is actively involved in youth baseball through LAYB and youth football through FNL.
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