Biden- Afghanistan's future based on security issues

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Calling Afghanistan "the other end of ground zero," U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden said Saturday that basic security supersedes every other concern in reconstructing the nation, stressing the need for a powerful international peacekeeping force.

"We are not talking about a task that is beyond our capability," Biden said at a news conference after three days in the Afghan capital. "This is doable. But it must be done."

Biden, a Delaware Democrat who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, met Saturday with interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai, who called for a strong and unflagging U.S. role in rebuilding Afghanistan.

"We very much want the United States to continue to help Afghanistan -- to help Afghanistan get stabilized further, to help Afghanistan stand back on its own feet and to have a longer relationship so the two countries benefit from it and we get secure and wealthy," Karzai said.

Biden said that people watching Afghanistan should be mindful that all other endeavors -- from physical rebuilding to repatriation of refugees and education -- cannot be achieved until people feel safe.

He said a show of force by the world -- in the form of the multinational peacekeeping force that is being deployed in Afghanistan -- is the key to establishing security.

"I ain't talking about peace, love and brotherhood," Biden said. "I am talking about a multilateral force that can shoot to kill, and makes it clear to everybody that without order you are our enemy, whoever you are."