Petraeus: More fighting ahead in Afghanistan - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Petraeus: More fighting ahead in Afghanistan

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The commander of the U.S. Central Command warned Tuesday that growing numbers of American soldiers sent to Afghanistan will encounter tough fighting, but said improving civilians’ lives is as important to winning the war as defeating militants.

Gen. David Petraeus, speaking to the American Legion’s national convention, said Taliban militants have expanded their influence in the war-ravaged country where U.S. forces are on track to reach 68,000 strong.

Petraeus, who oversees U.S. combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and is best known for coordinating the troop surge that significantly reduced violence in Iraq, warned that “an enormous amount of hard work and tough fighting lies ahead” in Afghanistan.

“And reversing the downward trend in security, in particular, will require a sustained, substantial commitment from all involved,” Petraeus said to the throngs of veterans who greeted him with a long ovation.

His comments came on the same day a bombing in Afghanistan killed four U.S. service members. August has become the second-deadliest month in the country since the 2001 U.S. invasion.

Amid signs of diminishing support for the conflict, Adm. Mike Mullen — the top U.S. military officer — said in his own speech to the veterans’ group that he welcomed debate about the war in Afghanistan.

“Let’s take a good, hard look at this fight we’re in, what we’re doing and why we’re doing it,” Mullen said. “I’d rather see us as a nation argue about the war, struggling to get it right, than ignore it.”

Just more than 50 percent of respondents to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll said the war in Afghanistan is not worth fighting. Three years ago, the U.S. had about 20,000 forces in Afghanistan.

Three times as many are there today and will reach 68,000 by year’s end when all the extra 17,000 troops that President Barack Obama announced in March are in place. An additional 4,000 troops will help train Afghan forces.

Mullen also said the war in Afghanistan is about defeating al-Qaida and its allies. He said the forces behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks are “still at it.”

Petraeus said defeating al-Qaida in Afghanistan will require “more than just killing or capturing terrorists and extremists.”

He said American and coalition forces are working with civilian officials to help the Afghan government win greater acceptance from its own people. Since the Taliban’s fall, the country has seen mushrooming school enrollments, road building and expanding medical services, Petraeus said.

The goal is to stem recent political gains by the Taliban, the Islamic fundamentalist movement that ruled Afghanistan in the late 1990s and gave refuge to Osama bin Laden. And the military may need more than guns and bombs, Mullen said.

“The best instruments may be shovels, tractors and teaching degrees,” he said.

On Tuesday, early returns from Afghanistan’s nationwide presidential vote showed incumbent Hamid Karzai and top challenger Abdullah Abdullah both with roughly 40 percent of the vote with 10 percent of polling stations counted. If neither gets more than 50 percent of the vote, the two will face each other in a runoff.

In Iraq, meanwhile, U.S. troops are helping the Iraqis build on “hard-earned progress,” Petraeus said. He said Iraqi forces have proven capable of shouldering security tasks in most of the country, though recent bombings in Baghdad remain a “serious concern.”

Still, he said it appears the U.S. will be able to proceed with planned troop withdrawals. The current timeline calls for American combat troops to withdraw by August 2010, leaving behind a residual force of 35,000 to 50,000 troops to train and advise Iraqi security forces until a final pullout by the end of 2011.

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