The US Central Command head, Gen. David Petraeus, predicts an increase in violence and ‘security incidents’ in Afghanistan in the spring of 2010. Despite his belief in the success of the coalition forces, he told a Senate committee on Wednesday that US officials still have to wait until December 2010 to evaluate fully the progress of the US troops in the war-torn country.
“While certainly different and in some ways tougher than Iraq, Afghanistan is no more hopeless than Iraq was when I took command there in February 2007″, said Petraeus. “Indeed the level of violence and number of violent civilian deaths in Iraq were vastly higher than we have seen in Afghanistan, but achieving progress in Afghanistan will be hard and the progress there likely will be slower in developing than progress was achieved in Iraq”.
Apart from Petraeus, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, also spoke to the Armed Services Committee’s Senate and House counterparts on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the US ambassador in Kabul, Karl Eikenberry and deputy secretary of state for management and resources, Jacob Lew, appeared before the committee on Wednesday.
McChrystal told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that ’security zones’ have to be established by US, NATO and Afghan forces to disengage the Taliban surge. According to McChrystal, if Taliban fighters are separated from the Afghan population, then “over time, they become irrelevant, and they, in fact, are defeated”.
A strong partnership with Pakistan is also necessary. And with the 2010 planned withdrawal, the US will continue to engage in talks with the country.
