WASHINGTON - Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States denounced his country's Western partners, saying that those who claim the international community is not winning the war against extremists there "should know that they never fully tried." He said negotiations with the Taliban should be conducted by the Afghan government and should be withheld until it was in a "position of strength." "We never asked to be the 51st state," Ambassador Said T. Jawad said, according to The Washington Post. "To suggest that Afghans do not deserve peace, pluralism and human rights is wrong and racist," Jawad said. President Obama, in a New York Times interview last week suggested that the United States seek negotiations with "reconcilable" Taliban elements. Obama also said the United States and NATO were not winning the war in Afghanistan and spoke favorably of U.S. military plans to bolster Afghan tribal forces to participate in the war against extremists. Jawad said such plans "will not work" and would undermine the country's stability. The diplomat accused those aiding Afghanistan of "total negligence" in building the Afghan police force and judicial system, "under-investment" in the national army, and providing "meager resources" devoted to helping the Afghan government deliver services and protect its citizens. U.S. military expenditures in Afghanistan have totaled more than $173 billion since 2001, with an additional $35 billion spent in reconstruction aid. U.S. military deaths total more than 660, with 431 NATO troops killed. Afghanistan appreciates Obama's deployment of 17,000 more American troops to the country, Jawad said. But he couched his praise in terms of casualty levels, saying increased U.S. ground operations that "will allow for surgical operations instead of relying on aerial bombings that lead to unacceptable levels of civilian deaths." "We welcome President Obama's plan to unveil a new comprehensive U.S. strategy by the end of this month," Jawad said, adding that Afghanistan was "grateful for being officially consulted" in the Washington talks last month. Jawad also praised Pakistan's civilian government as "sincere in fighting extremism and terrorism," Although Afghanistan "welcomed President Obama's remarks about talking with the Taliban," Jawad said, the government would handle the negotiations. "In fact," he said, "the process of talking with individual Taliban commanders has been going on for the past six years, and about 600 mid-level Taliban commanders have joined the peace process." He outlined three major Taliban groups -- the "ideological" forces affiliated with Pakistan-based al-Qaeda and regional terrorism networks; the mid-level commanders who "can be reconciled through dialogue, buying off, bribery and coercion"; and the "paycheck Taliban" made up of "unemployed, uneducated and brainwashed" young foot soldiers who need "employment and education, not too much dialogue." Citing "defeatist and reductionist media statements and policy recommendations in the U.S. and European capitals," Jawad noted that "NATO and U.S. forces are saying that we are not winning in Afghanistan, implying that the Taliban are not losing. "If they are not losing," he said, "why should they talk to us?"