Gates: US reviewing its Afghanistan war strategy

Associated Press

Published: September 18, 2008

LONDON (AP) -- In an echo of a time when things were going from bad to worse in Iraq, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday the Bush administration is reviewing its war strategy in Afghanistan amid spreading insurgent violence, rising U.S. and allied military deaths and doubts about winning.

With only a few months left before President Bush leave office, the administration apparently is attempting to draw a clearer picture for the next commander-in-chief of what needs to be done to stabilize the country, to sustain and increase international support and to make the most of U.S. and allied military forces.

Any changes in strategy now being contemplated would not be as substantial as Bush's decision in January 2007 to take a fundamentally different approach in Iraq, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said. Bush added more than 21,000 combat troops in Iraq and endorsed an overhaul of military strategy.

"Nothing of that magnitude" is being considered for the war in Afghanistan, Morrell cautioned.

Bush launched the war in Afghanistan in October 2001 in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 by al-Qaida, the extremist network that enjoyed protection there by the country's Taliban rulers. Al-Qaida has since been mostly removed from Afghanistan but remains in sanctuaries in parts of Pakistan. Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader, remains at large and is thought to be hiding in Pakistan.

Gates did not say the current U.S. approach in Afghanistan is failing. Nor did he explicitly call for a change of direction. He alluded, instead, to the 2007 makeover of U.S. strategy in Iraq and suggested in an interview with a group of reporters that the administration is reconsidering fundamental aspects of its strategy.

"We are looking at it, and I guess that is as far as I would go" in explaining the process, he said.

"You have an overall approach, an overall strategy, but you adjust it continually based on the circumstances that you find," Gates said. "We did that in Iraq. We made a change in strategy in Iraq and we are going to continue to look at the situation in Afghanistan."

Gates visited Afghanistan on Wednesday and flew to London for NATO consultations beginning Thursday evening. Afghanistan is not intended to be a major topic for the meeting; the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force is the lead command element in Afghanistan, headed by a U.S. general.

Gates did not reveal whether the White House has launched a formal across-the-board reassessment of its war strategy. But his remarks indicated that the administration sees a need to make some further adjustments.

He said the United States and its NATO partners face "a different kind of challenge" in Afghanistan than just two years ago, when it appeared that the insurgency in the eastern region, which borders Pakistan, was under control. Attacks in that region, as well as in southern Afghanistan, have since risen sharply.

Part of the difference from 2006, Gates said, is the growing threat posed in the east and south by extremist groups other than the Taliban. He mentioned al-Qaida and bans of foreign fighters, many of which find refuge in Pakistan and are able to slip across the largely unpoliced border to launch attacks.

A senior defense official traveling with Gates said later that the administration was examining a range of strategic questions, including whether to reduce the combat role of NATO troops in Afghanistan in light of planned increases in U.S. combat troops. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon, said it amounted to a broad review that included more than just military aspects of U.S. strategy.

In Washington, military analysts Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies issued a report concluding that the war is "probably being lost at the political and strategic level."

"The situation in Afghanistan has been deteriorating for nearly half a decade, and is now reaching a crisis level," Cordesman wrote.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress last week that he had commissioned a study of Afghan strategy to incorporate the complexities presented by rising unrest and insurgent activity in Pakistan. Mullen also publicly questioned whether the United States is winning in Afghanistan.

Gen. David McKiernan, the senior U.S. general in Afghanistan, told reporters on Tuesday at his Kabul headquarters that he believed the current strategy was adequate but that he needed more U.S. ground forces and other resources to properly execute it. He said he needs more than 10,000 extra American ground troops in 2009, in addition to the reinforcements already announced by the Pentagon.

In the interview Thursday, Gates also was asked about a stalemate in U.S. efforts to complete negotiations with the Iraqi government on a legal framework to govern the presence and role of U.S. troops after December, when a U.N. mandate is set to expire. He said the U.S. negotiating team was returning to Baghdad to resume talks and that they had brought with them some new ideas on how to bridge the negotiating gap.

He offered no details but said the new American proposals were intended to resolve differences with the Iraqis over the extent of Iraqi legal jurisdiction over U.S. personnel in the country and over detainees.

Gates met with Iraqi officials in Baghdad on Monday.

Gates also said that at a NATO meeting here Thursday and Friday he would raise the issue of how to share the cost of a planned doubling in the size of the Afghan national army. He said building up the capacity and effectiveness of Afghanistan's own security forces is "ultimately the exit strategy for all of us."

The United States has about 33,000 troops in Afghanistan, and President Bush has ordered an Army brigade of about 3,700 soldiers that had been preparing to deploy to Iraq to instead go to Afghanistan in January.

Bush also announced last April at a NATO summit meeting in Bucharest, Romania, that the United States would send even more troops to Afghanistan later in 2009, beyond his term in office, when ends in January.

Gates mentioned that Bush pledge on Thursday and said, "I expect his successor will meet that commitment."

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