Speaking in Washington yesterday, McKiernan described Afghanistan as "a far more complex environment than I ever found in Iraq." The country's mountainous terrain, rural population, poverty, illiteracy, 400 major tribal networks and history of civil war all make for unique challenges, he said.
"The word I don't use for Afghanistan is 'surge,' " McKiernan stressed, saying that what is required is a "sustained commitment" to a counterinsurgency effort that could last many years and would ultimately require a political, not military, solution.
--Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post
AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan Must Be Viewed Through Regional Prism, General Says - Gerry J. Gilmore, American Forces Press Service
NATO’s top military commander in Afghanistan said today he is “cautiously optimistic” regarding recent Pakistani military efforts to rein in insurgent activity in areas near the border with Afghanistan.
The Pakistani leadership now appears to be acting against terrorist sanctuaries located in the country’s remote federally administered tribal area, Army Gen. David D. McKiernan, commander of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, told Pentagon reporters.
Pakistani leaders may recognize that those militant bases pose “an existential threat” to Pakistan‘s future, McKiernan said. “I am encouraged by the military actions that the Pakistani army and frontier corps have undertaken in places like Bajaur,” he added.
Bajaur, the northernmost of Pakistan’s seven tribal agencies located along its border with Afghanistan, is known to contain Taliban and al-Qaida hideouts. Al-Qaida and Taliban militants conduct raids into Afghanistan from safe havens in Pakistan.
The Afghanistan-Pakistan border situation, McKiernan said, supports his contention that the conflict in Afghanistan must be viewed as a regional issue.
“I’ve consistently said that it’s very difficult for me to imagine the right outcome in Afghanistan without the right outcome in the militant sanctuaries on the Pakistani side of the border,” McKiernan said. “So, I think it’s a regional problem set that will require regional solutions.”
Having stability in that part of the world is vital to US national security interests, the general said.
McKiernan has recommended that thousands of additional US troops be deployed to Afghanistan in the months ahead to help tamp down mounting insurgent-generated violence, some of which is occurring along the border with Pakistan. Meanwhile, he said, there is potential “for increased military synchronization” between Afghan, US and Pakistani troops in the future.
McKiernan praised Afghan Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak’s proposal to establish a joint Afghan-Pakistani border patrol consisting of Pakistani military or frontier corpsmen, Afghan border police and ISAF troops, calling it “a very powerful idea.”
American Forces Press Service. More at Voice of America.
Commander in Afghanistan Wants More Troops - Ann Scott Tyson. Washington Post
The new top US commander in Afghanistan said yesterday that more American troops are urgently required to combat a worsening insurgency, but he stated emphatically that no Iraq-style "surge" of forces will end the conflict there.
"Afghanistan is not Iraq," said Gen. David D. McKiernan, who led ground forces during the 2003 Iraq invasion and took over four months ago as head of the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan.
Speaking in Washington yesterday, McKiernan described Afghanistan as "a far more complex environment than I ever found in Iraq." The country's mountainous terrain, rural population, poverty, illiteracy, 400 major tribal networks and history of civil war all make for unique challenges, he said.
"The word I don't use for Afghanistan is 'surge,' " McKiernan stressed, saying that what is required is a "sustained commitment" to a counterinsurgency effort that could last many years and would ultimately require a political, not military, solution.
More at the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times.
NATO Aims at Afghans Whose Drugs Aid Militants - Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt, New York Times
NATO forces in Afghanistan will step up attacks on drug lords and narcotics traffickers who are supporting an insurgency that has rebounded in the past year and is responsible for rising violence, the top American commander in Afghanistan said Wednesday.
The comments by the commander, Gen. David D. McKiernan, made clear that international troops in Afghanistan were not going to eradicate opium poppy crops. Afghanistan is the world’s top supplier of opium poppies, which are processed into heroin.
But by drawing a clear link between the narcotics trade and its role in the insurgency, General McKiernan was outlining what could be an important and expanding role for American and NATO troops as they seek to eliminate a source of money and weapons for the insurgency.
More at The New York Times.
British Envoy Says Mission in Afghanistan is Doomed, According to Leaked Memo - Charles Bremner and Michael Evans, The Times
Britain’s Ambassador to Afghanistan has stoked opposition to the allied operation there by reportedly saying that the campaign against the Taleban insurgents would fail and that the best hope was to install an acceptable dictator in Kabul.
Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, a Foreign Office heavyweight with a reputation for blunt speaking, delivered his bleak assessment of the seven-year Nato campaign in Afghanistan in a briefing with a French diplomat, according to French leaks. However sources in Whitehall said the account was a parody of the British Ambassador’s remarks.
François Fitou, the deputy French Ambassador to Kabul, told President Sarkozy’s office and the Foreign Ministry in a coded cable that Sir Sherard believed that “the current situation is bad; the security situation is getting worse; so is corruption and the Government has lost all trust”.
According to Mr Fitou, Sir Sherard told him on September 2 that the NATO-led military operation was making things worse. “The foreign forces are ensuring the survival of a regime which would collapse without them . . . They are slowing down and complicating an eventual exit from the crisis, which will probably be dramatic,” the Ambassador was quoted as saying.
More at The Times.
Afghanistan / Pakistan Tribal Areas
Afghanistan’s Solution Primarily Political, Not Military, General Says - AFPS
Amid Taliban Violence, Key Players Differ on Strategy - CS Monitor
Consolidated Fielding Center Speeds Afghan Army’s Growth - AFPS
US Missile Strike Kills 6 - Associated Press
Militants Force Men to Fight - Associated Press
Pakistanis Rise Up - Washington Times editorial
Want War? The Afghans Will Oblige - Minneapolis Star Tribune opinion
Pakistan
US Pressure Deepens Divide Between Military and Civilian Leadership - VOA
Pakistan’s New Spy Chief - New York Times editorial
