The top US military commander in Afghanistan has warned that more forces are needed within the next year or the war against the Taliban will be lost, the Washington Post reported yesterday.
General Stanley McChrystal wrote in a classified report: “Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near-term [next 12 months] — while Afghan security capacity matures — risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible.”
The grim assessment of the eight-year conflict, obtained by the Post, was presented to US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on Aug. 30 and is being reviewed by the White House.
McChrystal, who is widely expected to make a formal request to increase the 62,000-strong US force, said the campaign in Afghanistan “has been historically under-resourced and remains so today.”
As such, he wrote that “inadequate resources will likely result in failure.”
The weak resources also raise the risk of “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.”
The 66-page document describes a strengthening, intelligent Taliban insurgency.
McChrystal also slams the corruption-riddled Afghan government and a strategy by international forces that has failed to win over ordinary Afghans.
“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,” McChrystal wrote.
International forces, he said, “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.”
To boost the fight against the Taliban, McChrystal says the Afghan National Security Forces must be improved in 12 to 18 months to maintain international support.
He says the Afghan army should be increased from 134,000 troops to 240,000, and the country's police force needs 160,000 officers, up from 84,000.
The general, who Gates nominated to take over operations because “new thinking” was needed as US President Barack Obama attempts a new strategy for the war-torn country, also warns that hardline insurgents reach systematically into Afghanistan's bloated prison system for recruits.
The prisons have become “a sanctuary and base to conduct lethal operations” against the Afghan government and coalition forces, he said.
McChrystal, however, does maintain a cautious optimism for long-term outcomes in the conflict, saying: “While the situation is serious, success is still achievable.”
Obama weighed in Sunday on the debate over more troops in Afghanistan.
“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,” the president said in an interview with ABC.
“[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.
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