Aimal Faizi, the spokesman of President Hamid Karzai, on Sunday responded harshly to the recent statements made by James Dobbins, the United States Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, claiming that Afghanistan was already facing "civil war."
In a recent interview with the Voice of America, Ambassador Dobbins responded to a question about fears of a civil war erupting in Afghanistan once foreign troops leave in 2014 by saying that "Afghanistan is already in a civil war." He went on to stress the importance of a political settlement to the conflict in Afghanistan.
Mr. Faizi, after Dobbins' interview was broadcasted, responded somewhat caustically by saying that if the statement made by Dobbins was accurate, then all these years the U.S. has been busy fighting in a civil war in Afghanistan, instead of a war on terrorism.
"America's involvement in Afghanistan's 'civil war' has resulted in the intensification of the country's instability," Mr. Faizi said while responding to questions from a Bakhtar News Agency reporter.
Mr. Faizi stressed the fact that the people of Afghanistan are fighting terrorism and not an internal war.
A U.S. Embassy official offered the following statement on condition of anonymity "The United States is committed to the security and stability of Afghanistan. Ambassador Dobbins was discussing the need for Afghans to speak to Afghans in order to achieve a lasting peace. He used a standard academic term to describe the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan; he was not commenting on all the causes of the conflict."
However, regardless of Ambassador Dobbins' intentions or the pedigree of his terminology, his statement was clearly received disdainfully by officials in Kabul. It may have been a simple misstep, albeit a surprising one from as seasoned of a diplomat as Dobbins is, but perhaps it could also signal that Kabul and Washington really are just on completely different pages.