Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Houston Chronicle
January 30, 2008 Gates says security is good but needs to improve
By Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Afghanistan risks becoming a failed state and "forgotten war" because of deteriorating international support and a growing violent insurgency, according to an independent study.
The assessment, co-chaired by retired Marine Corps Gen. James Jones and former U.N. Ambassador Thomas Pickering, serves as a warning to the Bush administration as military and congressional officials debate how best to juggle stretched warfighting resources.
The administration wants to re-energize anti-terrorism efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where al-Qaida is regenerating. But the U.S. still remains heavily invested in Iraq, where troop reductions are expected to slow or stop this summer.
Declaring Afghanistan at a crossroads, the study concludes a major issue has been trying to win the war with "too few military forces and insufficient economic aid."
Among the group's nearly three dozen recommendations: increase NATO force levels and military equipment sent to Afghanistan, decouple U.S. management of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, establish a special envoy to coordinate all U.S. policy on Afghanistan, and champion a unified allied strategy to stabilize the country.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he was not familiar with the study's findings, but he struck a more optimistic tone.
"I would say that the security situation is good," Gates said. "We want to make sure it gets better, and I think there's still a need to coordinate civil reconstruction, the economic development side of it."
Gates said more troops are needed in Afghanistan, but "certainly not ours." He said the number of additional NATO troops needed should be determined by ground commanders.
January 30, 2008 Gates says security is good but needs to improve
By Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Afghanistan risks becoming a failed state and "forgotten war" because of deteriorating international support and a growing violent insurgency, according to an independent study.
The assessment, co-chaired by retired Marine Corps Gen. James Jones and former U.N. Ambassador Thomas Pickering, serves as a warning to the Bush administration as military and congressional officials debate how best to juggle stretched warfighting resources.
The administration wants to re-energize anti-terrorism efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where al-Qaida is regenerating. But the U.S. still remains heavily invested in Iraq, where troop reductions are expected to slow or stop this summer.
Declaring Afghanistan at a crossroads, the study concludes a major issue has been trying to win the war with "too few military forces and insufficient economic aid."
Among the group's nearly three dozen recommendations: increase NATO force levels and military equipment sent to Afghanistan, decouple U.S. management of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, establish a special envoy to coordinate all U.S. policy on Afghanistan, and champion a unified allied strategy to stabilize the country.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he was not familiar with the study's findings, but he struck a more optimistic tone.
"I would say that the security situation is good," Gates said. "We want to make sure it gets better, and I think there's still a need to coordinate civil reconstruction, the economic development side of it."
Gates said more troops are needed in Afghanistan, but "certainly not ours." He said the number of additional NATO troops needed should be determined by ground commanders.