US General David Petraeus appealed for a united effort to end almost nine years of war against the Taliban as he made his public debut as the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan.
The four-star general, who arrived in the Afghan capital on Friday, faces a tough task to bring peace and secure a face-saving exit for allied troops fighting the Taliban, observers say.
“This is an effort in which we must achieve unity of effort and common purpose. Civilian and military, Afghan and international, we are part of one team with one mission,” Petraeus said at the US embassy in Kabul.
PHOTO: AFP
“On this important endeavor, cooperation is not optional,” Petraeus added.
Replacing the sacked US General Stanley McChrystal, Petraeus has said the Afghan war is likely to get tougher before significant improvements are seen.
“This is a tough mission, there is nothing easy about it. But working together we can achieve progress and we can achieve our mutual objective,” he told 1,700 Afghan cabinet members, diplomats, and development workers.
He arrives as the deaths of US and NATO soldiers are touching record highs in intensified fighting, along with questions about the wisdom of committing such huge resources in manpower and money to what could yet be a lost cause.
The general wore military fatigues as he stood with the US ambassador Karl Eikenberry to receive guests on the lawn of the sprawling US embassy in Kabul to mark the Fourth of July holiday.
His appointment as commander of the 140,000 US and NATO troops in Afghanistan has been welcomed by local officials, including Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who is increasingly seen in the West as a loose cannon.
But analysts have urged Petraeus to make immediate adjustments to turn around rapidly a war seen as bogged down to the Taliban’s advantage.
“Petraeus must change the fundamental strategy of the war against the Taliban,” parliamentarian Ahmad Behzad said.
“A change in the leadership of foreign forces can only be effective if we see more serious steps taken against terrorists,” he said.
McChrystal’s reputation had suffered from the failure of foreign forces to secure the poppy-growing district of Marjah, in southern Helmand Province, in a massive operation launched in February, political analyst Haroun Mir said.
A planned escalation in operations against the Taliban in Kandahar Province, the militants’ heartland, had been postponed to September, Mir said, adding: “And we don’t know if it will ever go ahead.”
Despite assurances from US President Barack Obama, and Petraeus himself, that the change of command does not mean a change in strategy, the general has already hinted some tweaks could be in the air.
Troops have complained that McChrystal’s “courageous restraint” rule, aimed at minimizing civilian casualties, prevents them from properly defending themselves — thus contributing to the spike in casualties.
Petraeus conceded this week that troops were unhappy with the rules of engagement, which limit air strikes and artillery and mortar fire, but he denied he planned changes.
Petraeus’ relationship with Karzai would be central to his success, analysts and diplomats said, noting that McChrystal nurtured Karzai as “commander in chief” and improved his ties with Washington.
“Being able to work with an Afghan partner is key to this war,” Kabul University law lecturer Wadir Safi said.
The scale of the task facing the 57-year-old Petraeus and the troops under his command was underlined just hours before he arrived in Afghanistan when Taliban militants stormed a US aid organization, which left five people dead.
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