Posted on 07/10/2008 5:25:43 PM PDT by SandRat
KABUL, Afghanistan, July 10, 2008 – The U.S. military’s senior officer and the commander of international forces in Afghanistan met with reporters here today to discuss the situation and threats coalition and Afghan forces are facing.
Insurgent activities and coalition casualties have increased throughout the past months, while June was the deadliest month for coalition troops in nearly seven years of conflict here. Twenty-eight servicemembers were killed.
This is due partly to “coalition and Afghan troops taking the fight to the insurgency” and the rising number of insurgents crossing the border from Pakistan into Afghanistan, said Army Gen. David D. McKiernan, commander of the International Security Assistance Force here.
The lack of ability for the new Pakistani government to successfully monitor their borders have allowed for militant and insurgent groups to find safe havens in the tribal areas there, McKiernan explained.
“I have consistently said that we are seeing an increasing level of violence in Afghanistan, especially in the east and the south,” he said. “I attribute part of that to the fact that there are sanctuary areas to militant groups that are across the [Pakistan] boarder in Fata and the North-West Frontier Province.”
Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, added, “The new Pakistan government has a very difficult challenge and continues to work its way through, but has to enforce making sure foreign fighters don’t exist out there and make sure the insurgents don’t have the freedom of movement across the border.”
U.S. military officials recognize the need for more troops in Afghanistan, but remain reluctant to deploy them because of commitments currently in Iraq. Officials also realize the need to increase “dwell time” after deployments for servicemembers, said Mullen, who was in Iraq the previous three days visiting troops and meeting with senior leaders there.
“I just came from Iraq, and the conditions continue to improve there,” he said. “I am still very hopeful that those conditions will continue so we’ll have forces available to do other things. The next priority would be to move forces into Afghanistan.”
In early June, President Bush vowed to send additional forces to Afghanistan in 2009. However, there are no specifics about when that may take place, Mullen said.
“Exactly when the increase may occur will be based on decisions made about Iraq in the future,” he added. “From the national perspective, we’re given direction from the president, and it’s the decision of the leadership in [the U.S.] that we prioritize accordingly.”
Mullen noted that the recent addition of two U.S. Marine battalions in Afghanistan -- one training Afghan soldiers and police and the other participating in heavy fighting in the southern regions -- have made significant progress in the fight against terrorism.
However, he said he remains concerned about the number of additional forces from the Northern Atlantic Treaty Organization that member countries have committed to Afghanistan throughout the past year, he said.
“We need that extra capability,” he said. “[NATO] needs to do all they can do, as well.”
Mullen reiterated his concerns about foreign fighters crossing the Pakistani border and their safe havens in the country’s tribal areas. Insurgents flow much more freely into Afghanistan than they did a year ago, he said.
He said the Pakistani government and military have to put more pressure on their border in order for Afghanistan’s government to develop and succeed.
“We all recognize that the challenges here continue to be significant,” the admiral said. “The violence is up, but at the same time, coalition and Afghan forces are aggressively engaging the enemy, and we’ve had significant successes.”
Well, at least we know where Bin Laden AINT.
One big problem is that the border betweeen Afghanistan and Pakistan is 2600 meters or 1,615 miles...The country itself is about the size of Texas....About half of Afghanistan is above 6500 feet elevation and about 50% of the country is inhospitable...Further complicating the turmoil is that the Afghans lost 1 million people out of a total population of about 29 million and after the Afghan-Russian war the country was left in poverty and in shambles so the strongest took over—the warlords and the Taliban and they use the northwest territories of Pakistan as safe havens..
But if the warlords and Taliban are together in the non-governable northwest Pakistan provinces, our troops and NATO allied troops may be able to pin them down and decimate them, and hopefully seal some of the border roads between Afghanistan and Pakistan who then would be forced to use the higher mountain passes, such as the Khyber Pass
That is war in one of the most inhospitable places on earth, very similar to the Korean War...contrast that to war in Iraq which is more like a desert war-hot, humid, dusty, and with urban slum areas...
Sources:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_long_is_the_border_of_Pakistan_with_Afghanistan
http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/asia/af.htm#description
For a slide picture view of the Afghan/Pakistani area, here is a link to Google Earth,Panoramio...use the < and > arrows above each picture..the pics loaded ok on this computer, may be slow loading on some...If you don’t have Google Earth you can go to Google and download it..I unchecked all 3 optional items and it still installed ok...
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/6815252
Checked posting rules and saw nothing re Google Earth, so hopefully it is ok to post these pictures..They show the country, the people,the rivers, mountains, village life, Khyber Fort, and a winding road through the Khyber Pass;also shows flooding and terrace farming...Scenes from a rural life, some current, others from 1975...
Afghanistan job ping.
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