The FINANCIAL — The top U.S. and NATO military commander in Afghanistan is warning that the mission "will likely result in failure" if more troops are not sent within the next year. Gen Stanley McChrystal made his assessment in a copy of a confidential report obtained by the Washington Post.
"Resources will not win this war, but under-resourcing could lose it," McChrystal wrote in a five-page Commander's Summary, AP reported. His 66-page report, sent to Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Aug. 30, is now under review by President Barack Obama.
"Although considerable effort and sacrifice have resulted in some progress, many indicators suggest the overall effort is deteriorating," McChrystal said of the war's progress, according to the same source. While asserting that more troops are needed, McChrystal also pointed out an "urgent need" to significantly revise strategy. The U.S. needs to interact better with the Afghan people, McChrystal said, and better organize its efforts with NATO allies.
He recently called for a revised military strategy in Afghanistan, suggesting the current one is failing, BBC reported. More than 30,000 extra US troops have been sent to Afghanistan since May – almost doubling the US contingent.
The number of US troops in Afghanistan is already set to rise to 68,000 by the end of the year, the same source gives information. Gen McChrystal said that failure to provide adequate resources "also risks a longer conflict, greater casualties, higher overall costs, and ultimately, a critical loss of political support." "Any of these risks, in turn, are likely to result in mission failure."
McChrystal also slams the corruption-riddled Afghan government and a strategy by international forces in the country that has failed to win over the civilian population, AFP gives information. "The weakness of state institutions, malign actions of power-brokers, widespread corruption and abuse of power by various officials, and (the International Security Assistance Force's) own errors, have given Afghans little reason to support their government," wrote McChrystal.
International forces, he said, as the same source reported, "have operated in a manner that distances us — physically and psychologically — from the people we seek to protect… The insurgents cannot defeat us militarily; but we can defeat ourselves."
According to AP, in his blunt assessment of the tenacious Taliban insurgency, McChrystal warned that unless the U.S. and its allies gain the initiative and reverse the momentum of the militants within the next year the U.S. "risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible"
The Pentagon and the White House are awaiting a separate, more detailed request for additional troops and resources, the same source gives information. Media reports Friday and Saturday said McChrystal has finished it but was told to pocket it, partly because of the charged politics surrounding the decision. McChrystal's senior spokesman, Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, told The Associated Press on Sunday the report is not complete.
General’s strategic assessment could well fuel the public anxiety over the war that has been fast increasing in recent weeks as American casualties have risen, allied commanders have expressed surprise at the Taliban’s fighting prowess, and allegations of ballot fraud Afghanistan’s recent presidential elections have escalated, as The New York Times reported. In a series of interviews on the Sunday morning talk shows, Obama expressed skepticism about sending more American troops to Afghanistan until he was sure his administration had the right strategy to succeed.
“Right now, the question is, the first question is, are we doing the right thing? Are we pursuing the right strategy?” Obama said on CNN, according to the same source. “When we have clarity on that, then the question is, O.K., how do we resource it?”
In an interview with ABC, as AFP gives information, the President said "We're going to test whatever resources we have against our strategy, which is if by sending young men and women into harm's way, we are defeating Al-Qaeda," "(If) that can be shown to a skeptical audience — namely me, somebody who is always asking hard questions about deploying troops — then we will do what's required to keep the American people safe," Obama said.
Gates said this week that the president needed time to examine various assessments of US strategy and should not be rushed over such an important decision, the same source reported. "We need to take our time and get this right," he told a news conference on Thursday.
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