US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said on Tuesday the Pentagon may be able to send thousands more combat troops to Afghanistan starting next spring, but he also pointedly cautioned against overdoing a military buildup in a country offended by the presence of foreign forces.
“I think we need to think about how heavy a military footprint the United States ought to have in Afghanistan,” Gates said. “Are we better off channeling resources into building and expanding the size of the Afghan national army as quickly as possible, as opposed to a much larger Western footprint in a country that has never been notoriously hospitable to foreigners?”
About 31,000 US troops are in Afghanistan and roughly an equal number of coalition troops.
In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gates also expressed disappointment at a persistent lack of coordination among the various international military and humanitarian organizations that are attempting to stabilize Afghanistan and put it on a path to peace.
One of the keys in Afghanistan, he said, is building momentum not just on the military front but also in the economic and political arenas, a coordinated approach that Gates said is sorely lacking.
“Right now, as far as I can tell, it’s essentially everybody doing their own thing,” he lamented.
His assessment explains in part why the Bush administration is undertaking a broad review of its strategy in Afghanistan, not just the military approach but also the economic and humanitarian linkages. Most telling was his allusion to the risk of putting too much emphasis on the role of military power.
Many members of NATO, whose International Security Assistance Force is the overall military command in Afghanistan, have resisted US requests for more troops. They have put more emphasis on economic development, humanitarian assistance and encouraging better Afghan governance.
US President George W. Bush announced this month that one Army combat brigade that had been scheduled to go to Iraq would instead be sent to Afghanistan in January. Gates said that as many as three more combat brigades could be available to go beginning next spring, answering repeated calls from commanders.
Because of the large numbers of troops in Iraq, more forces cannot be committed to Afghanistan now without extending combat tours or changing troop deployment schedules, Gates said. When pressed by Democratic Senator Carl Levin, Gates said they probably could go in the spring and summer of next year.
Levin objected to a statement in Gates’ prepared testimony that said it now may be “possible” to do militarily what must be done in Afghanistan, which has been a secondary priority to the Iraq war for years.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS