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KABUL – President Hamid Karzai set two ambitious goals in his inauguration speech Thursday: to have Afghan soldiers and police take full responsibility for security within the next five years, and to root out the pervasive corruption that hobbled his first administration.
In many ways, Karzai’s words dovetailed precisely with the aims of the Obama administration. Both countries want to reduce the presence of foreign troops on the battlefield and in the prison system. And both now concede that bribery and misspent funding are among the most serious obstacles to progress in Afghanistan.
But many Afghans doubt whether the goals can be achieved as the Taliban gain strength, and there has been little action to date in stemming corruption.
The electoral process itself left little reason for optimism. Karzai initially had a majority of the votes in the Aug. 20 election, but widespread ballot-stuffing erased his lead and set up a second round. His challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, dropped out of the race in protest that the system that allowed the initial fraud had not been reformed.
“I don’t think Karzai will be able to do the things he says. Afghans do not trust him anymore,” said Hamidullah Tokhi, a parliament member from Zabul province. “All the things he promised when he took an oath in the last inauguration have not been fulfilled.”
In a 30-minute speech in the presidential palace, Karzai repeated many of his themes from the campaign. He said reconciliation with the Taliban would be his top priority. He invited fighters to lay down their arms and said he would convene a council of Afghan leaders to try to reach peace through negotiation.
But Afghan-led efforts at dialogue with insurgents have achieved little so far, and experts say funds devoted to encouraging fighters to give up their cause have been squandered.
Karzai spoke in front of about 800 people, including dignitaries such as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.
In addition to calling for Afghan security forces to take over from NATO troops within five years, Karzai said he wanted private security companies to cease all operations within two years and Afghans to control their own detention system.
Clinton, making her first trip to Afghanistan as secretary of state, described Karzai’s goals as ambitious but worthy.
“We want to assist him and the military and police leadership in Afghanistan to move as quickly as they can, to stand up and deploy a professional, motivated, effective force,” she said at a news conference. “We’re going to work with the president to try to work toward the goal he set.”
