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Petraeus: Afghan success needs cooperation

Success in Afghanistan will require regional cooperation among the war-torn country’s neighbors — including Iran, the leader of U.S. Central Command said Thursday.

“There are even common interests between Afghanistan, the [NATO] coalition and Iran — though there are also major conflicting interests, needless to say,” said Army Gen. David Petraeus, speaking during a Washington, D.C., panel discussion on the way forward in Afghanistan sponsored by the Institute for Peace.

Petraeus wouldn’t bite when asked during the question-and-answer session to elaborate on dealing with a country that the U.S. says has supplied advanced roadside bomb parts and training for Iraq-based insurgents but that President-elect Barack Obama has said he wants to engage over its reported development of nuclear arms.

“I’m happy to leave that to the diplomats during a time of transition in Washington,” Petraeus added, referring to the upcoming change of administration.

The regional approach is required because Afghanistan’s problems affect all the surrounding nations, Petraeus said. For instance, there’s an increasing recognition within Pakistan, he said, that the insurgent safe haven in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal areas, from which extremists launch attacks into Afghanistan, is by some estimation a greater internal threat to Pakistan than its rival and neighbor India. And the smuggling of Afghani opium, he said, affects every country in the region.

In addition to greater regional cooperation, Petraeus said that U.S., coalition and Afghan forces must work in a more comprehensive and coordinated fashion and that an increasingly capable Afghan army and police force must take a greater share of responsibility for the country’s security.

Petraeus wouldn’t hazard a guess as to how many years U.S. troops will be making plans to deploy to Afghanistan. In a book published Thursday by the institute, “The Future of Afghanistan,” (http://www.usip.org/peaceops/afghanistan/book.html), the collection of essays posits what progress could be attained over the next 10 years.

Petraeus would only say that achieving progress “will take time.” The U.S. commitment, he said, must be “sustained, comprehensive and coordinated.

“Nearly every aspect of Afghanistan has been hard,” he said, noting accomplishments such as agreement on a constitution, development of the Afghan national army and infrastructure improvements and setbacks like the reconstitution of the Taliban and al-Qaida extremist groups, country’s “considerable corruption problems” and “numerous challenges in developing government institutions.”

“And that will continue to be the case in 2009 and the years beyond,” he said.

Oft-neglected by the Bush administration in favor of the Iraq war, now drawing down, Afghanistan is on the front burner; the number of U.S. troops, now 31,000, will double sometime between late next summer and as much as 18 months down the road, officials have said. In an interview afterward, Petraeus declined to say how long it might take for all those troops to arrive, saying that decisions are still being made on “sourcing solutions.”

But while some who applaud this increase have called for a repeat of the largely successful “surge” that reduced violence in Iraq, Petraeus said there are major differences to be considered. Afghanistan is far larger, more rugged and harsh, has far higher illiteracy and far lower skill levels, has a weak central government and poor natural resources — all major obstacles to progress, he said.

Even as the troop levels rise, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has expressed concern about building too heavy a “military footprint” in Afghanistan, saying resources might be better channeled into building the size and capability of the Afghan army.

Petraeus said that Gates’ concern is not at odds with the U.S. decision to send the troops — a combination of ground troops, aviation assets and “combat enablers” — being deployed at the request of Army Gen. David McKiernan, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan.

“I think his concern is completely well-founded,” Petraeus said later. “It really revolves around the idea that we should not take this over from the Afghans — that is the real concern here. We must be very careful to allow them to take security tasks forward, to allow them to fight, to support them, to enable them, while we’ll have to lead in a number of different areas.”

McKiernan “is very sensitive to the same issue,” Petraeus said. “And, of course, he’s made that request with that in mind.”

Petraeus said he and other leaders are fully aware that they are asking a lot of a military fatigued by more than seven years of war in Afghanistan and six in Iraq.

“We’re very conscious of the strain on the force, very conscious of the sacrifices that have been made, the long separations by our soldiers and their families,” he said. “Having said that, as we are able to come down with our forces in Iraq, as the Marine Corps and the Army in particular have an increase in their end strength, we’ll see greater dwell time. And that’s one of the objectives overall as we go forward.”