THE NEW military chief in Afghanistan has insisted Nato is making headway in the war as casualties rise to record levels and European disillusionment with the campaign grows.
A day after the US Senate unanimously voted to confirm his selection as commander of the war, Gen David Petraeus went to Nato headquarters in Brussels to brief America’s allies on his plans while en route to Kabul.
President Barack Obama appointed Gen Petraeus last week in succession to Gen Stanley McChrystal, whom he sacked over his disparaging remarks about US leaders in Rolling Stone magazine.
Certain European Nato members are unhappy at the manner of Gen Petraeus’s appointment, which was made without prior consultation. However, Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters in Brussels that the new chief, his strategy and his mission had the “full support” of the alliance.
Gen Petraeus, architect of the surge strategy in the Iraq war, reaffirmed his plan to take the fight to the Taliban by building up the Allied presence and eventually handing security over to the Afghan authorities.
This has been questioned, however, as military fatalities rise. More than 320 foreign troops have died so far this year, 102 of them in the June, the deadliest month since the war began.
Gen Petraeus said the reduction of civilian casualties to a minimum would remain a priority.
“In counterinsurgency, the human terrain is the decisive terrain and you must do everything possible to reduce civilian casualties . . . in the course of military operations.” He may end certain restrictions on air power that have been blamed for alliance casualties, but not if it risks killing more Afghan civilians.
“There are concerns among the ranks of some of our troopers on the ground that some of the processes are becoming a bit too bureaucratic,” he said.
“I have a moral imperative as a commander . . . to bring all force that is available when our troopers – and, by the way, our Afghan partners – are in a tough position.”
He struck a confident tone, but was circumspect on targets for the first six months of his command. Citing the size of some of the Afghan provinces, he said he hoped to see progress in certain “sub-districts or districts” by the end of the year.
He said the campaign had made progress since this year and attributed the intensity of the fighting to the fact that the Taliban was under pressure.
“There’s no question that the Taliban had the momentum – had the initiative, if you will – coming into this year and indeed one of the real areas of focus has been to reverse that process and I think there has been a reversal in certain areas of Afghanistan,” he said.
“When you take away his safe havens, the enemy fights back. You may recall that in Iraq, the highest level of violence ever recorded was months into the surge. They were very, very high at the beginning of the surge but they actually went up vastly.”