Gates: Report details highs, lows of Afghan fight

[David]

AP


FORT WORTH, Texas – Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday the top commander in the troubled Afghanistan war will present a realistic assessment of the conflict this week in a report widely seen as the groundwork for a new request to add more American troops next year.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, said in his review that the war is winnable but needs a new strategy. NATO officials disclosed he is expected to separately request more troops.

Gates said the Obama administration will look closely at the "resources requests" expected to flow from McChrystal's assessment. Gates said the review's hard look at the U.S. military's performance contains both bright spots and "doom and gloom."

"We have been very explicit that Gen. McChrystal should be forthright in telling us what he needs," Gates said following a tour of the factory where next-generation F-35 fighter jets are built and tested.

He noted his oft-repeated worry about placing too many forces in Afghanistan, a strategy that failed for the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

"I think there are larger issues," Gates said. "We will have to look at the availability of forces; we will have to look at costs. There are a lot of different things we will have to look at."

McChrystal sent his strategic review of the Afghan war to the Pentagon and NATO headquarters Monday. Gates said he has not seen it, but expects to do so in the coming day or two.

Gates requested the report as a gut check following President Barack Obama's announcement of a pared-down counter-insurgency strategy and the rare wartime firing of a top general this spring. McChrystal was sent to Afghanistan this summer to oversee the addition of 17,000 U.S. combat forces on Obama's orders, on the way to a record U.S. commitment of 68,000 by the end of this year.

There is little appetite at the White House and in Congress for further expansion of a war that is backsliding despite nearly eight years of fighting and millions in development money. U.S. and NATO commanders say they do not have sufficient troops and support to expand the fight against a resilient and well-organized Taliban insurgency.

NATO spokesman James Appathurai said the report contains no express requests.

"But we know we will need to provide more trainers and equipment for the Afghan security forces," he said.

At the Pentagon, spokesman Bryan Whitman said McChrystal's assessment would not include specific recommendations for additional troops or funding. "They'll be addressed in the future," Whitman said.

McChrystal's recommendations were being sent up through U.S. Central Command commanders, including Gen. David Petraeus, who would add their comments to it. Whitman would not say whether Gates had seen it yet, but said the report would not be made public, calling it a "confidential military assessment for the chain of command."

McChrystal is expected to call for a major expansion of the Afghan armed forces, which would mean more U.S. and allied forces to train and equip the recruits.

"The situation in Afghanistan is serious, but success is achievable and demands a revised implementation strategy, commitment and resolve, and increased unity of effort," McChrystal said in a statement Monday.

The report recommends focusing the U.S. and NATO counterinsurgency efforts on the Afghan population and less on militants, one of the NATO officials said.

Last week, in newly released counterinsurgency guidance, McChrystal said troops "must change the way that we think, act and operate." The general hopes to install a new approach in troops to make the safety of villagers the top priority.

McChrystal also said that the supply of fighters in the Afghan insurgency is "essentially endless," the reason violence continues to rise. He called on troops to think of how they would expect a foreign army to operate in their home countries, "among your families and your children, and act accordingly," to try to win over the Afghan population.

Explosions killed two more U.S. troops, raising the record death toll in August to 47 — the deadliest month of the eight-year war for American forces.

Gates said he is concerned about the growing casualties caused by roadside bombs, a weapon borrowed from the war in Iraq. Gates said he want to send additional armored vehicles to protect troops in Afghanistan and more surveillance equipment to scout out bombs and bombers.

Gates was in Texas to see the first batch of F-35 stealth fighter jets, designed to be cheaper and more flexible than big-ticket weapons systems such as the F-22 fighter that has not been used in Iraq or Afghanistan.

After touring the Lockheed Martin Corp. plant where the $100 million F-35s are built, Gates got a first look at the MC-12 Liberty, a relatively low-tech answer to the problem of airborne surveillance in Afghanistan. The first of the planes are already flying in Iraq, and will soon be sent to Afghanistan.

"Our enemies often hide among the population and use tactics such as IEDs to avoid a direct fight," Gates told workers at the Greenville, Texas, plant where the MC-12 is assembled.

The plane will help in detecting insurgent tactics, Gates said, by providing a vital "eye in the sky."





Graphic shows monthly U.S. troop deaths in Afghanistan