WASHINGTON, June 11, 2009
Afghan Violence Hits All-Time High
Top U.S. Commander Says "Tough Times Ahead" After Violence Spikes Last Week
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U.S. Marines from the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Battalion walk through the sand inside Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan's Helmand province, June 8, 2009. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
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Gen. David Petraeus said there's no question that security in Afghanistan has deteriorated over the last two years. The general also told an audience Thursday that "there are still tough times ahead." He gave a speech at the Washington think-tank Center for a New American Security.
Petraeus leads U.S. Central Command, which spans from Egypt to Pakistan. The number of attacks last week in Afghanistan was not immediately available.
The general noted several challenges in Afghanistan he did not face in Iraq, such as the inability of U.S. troops to live among the local residents.
Meanwhile, NATO allies agree with the United States that progress must be shown in Afghanistan over the next year to 18 months, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday.
Gates said that after this summer's election in Afghanistan, he hopes "to see if we can shift the momentum."
Speaking to reporters traveling with him from the Netherlands to Belgium, Gates said: "If we can show we're making progress, if we're heading in the right direction, the American people and the Congress will sustain this effort. But if in a year or so it appears we are in a stalemate and we're taking even more casualties, that patience would wear thin pretty soon."
Gates said he tried to put allies' minds at ease about what some have called a creeping "Americanization" of the Afghan war effort, with U.S. commanders making the biggest decisions.
Gates said he wants a wide role for the military alliance in a rearranged hierarchy that will include his new team of hand-picked generals. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Gates' choice as the top Afghanistan commander, is expected in Europe this week.
The U.S. has more forces fighting in Afghanistan than the rest of the NATO alliance combined, but American leaders say the war cannot be won without help from the alliance and other countries, including Afghanistan's neighbors.
Gates said Thursday he does not expect NATO allies such as the Netherlands to reconsider announced plans to withdraw their forces from Afghanistan over the next couple of years.
"Those political decisions have been made," Gates told reporters.
The first of some 21,000 additional U.S. forces are joining the fight in Afghanistan this spring and summer. President Barack Obama ordered the new troops to get an edge on a persistent Taliban insurgency that went almost unchallenged in some areas of the country where there were not enough U.S. and allied troops to hold ground.
In the Netherlands on Wednesday, Gates met with defense ministers from other nations with fighting forces in southern Afghanistan, seat of much of the heaviest fighting.
He visited Netherlands American Cemetery near Maastricht, site of the graves of thousands of American dead from World War II, and appealed for unity and resolve in the war in Afghanistan.
Gates said the allied nations fighting in Afghanistan share a purpose akin to the partnership that liberated Europe six decades ago. "Once again it requires great sacrifice from the United States, the Netherlands and the rest of the coalition trying to help a proud people rebuild their nation after decades of war," he said following a tour of the cemetery.
© MMIX, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 24 CommentsNow while I DO NOT AGREE WITH THIS WAR OR ANY OTHER WAR OF THIS NATURE! MY SON IS A PROUD MARINE AND IS THERE NOW FIGHTING FOR THE VERY THING YOU ALL ARE ASKING FOR FREEDOM! I AM ON A DAILY BASIS WORRIED SICK AND JUMP EVERYTIME THE PHONE RINGS. BUT I AM PROUD OF HIM FOR HAVING THE COURAGE TO STAND UP FOR WHAT HE FEELS IS RIGHT. UNLIKE THE NONSENSE I READ FROM ALL OF YOU, HAVING SAID THAT THIS IS MAY I QUOTE " ABOUT A OIL PIPELINE" WELL THAT MAY BE TRUE BUT TO ENLIGHTEN YOU THIS A ABOUT A DRUG WAR AND JOCKING FOR TOP DOG PERIOD!!! PAY ATTENTION TO THE NEWS A MAJOR DRUG WAR IS WHAT WE ARE FIGHTING. CALL IT AN OVER LOAD OF ESTROGENE IF YOU WANT TO I THINK THEY SHOULD JUST BURN ALL THE FEILDS FILL THEM ALL WITH CONCERTE AND GET THE HECK OUT OF DODGE WE'D LOSE LESS LIFES AND PROBABLY SAVE TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN THE LONG RUN IT WOULD TAKE A LONG TIME FOR THE PEOPLE OF THAT COUNTRY TO GET BACK TO THE LEVEL OF POWER THEY ARE AT NOW IF THE MAJOR ELEMENT WAS REMOVED FROM THE EQUATION. FIGHTING A WAR FOR THIS IS NOTHING MORE THAN A MAJOR PEEING CONTEST. IN THE END WILL THERE STILL BE THAT SOURCE OF INCOME FOR THE EVIL? OF COURSE BUT REMOVE THE MAIN SOURSE OF THE INCOME AND REBUILDING IS MUCH MORE DIFFCULT MAYBE THEN THE POWERS OVER THERE CAN DEAL WITH THERE OWN PROBLEMS AND WE CAN GET BACK IN OUR OWN BACKYARD AND DEAL WITH THE PROBLEMS HERE. i COULD GO ON BUT YOU GET MY POINT.
AM I STILL A PROUD MOM OF A US MARINE YOU BET I AM!!!!!
GOD BLESS EACH AND EVERYONE WHO STAND UP FOR ALL OF US EVERY SECOND OF EVERYDAY!!
Posted by enriquieGonzales at 4:47 PM : Jun 11, 2009
Terrorist, your turban is just on a bit too tight.
Posted by aztecdakota at 3:07 PM : Jun 11, 2009
Worst case of testosterone poisoning I've seen today.
idiots. IDIOTS.
Bush/Cheney IDIOTS.
I TOLD YOU SO.
THIS IS ABOUT AN OIL PIPELINE.
9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB.
YOU SUPPORTED TERRORISM WHEN YOU VOTED FOR BUSH, AND HE STOLE TWO ELECTIONS. BUY ANOTHER YELLOW RIBBON FOR YOUR WHITE SUV, *********.
Top U.S. Commander Says "Tough Times Ahead" After Violence Spikes Last Week
Didnt we ellect Obama to fix all of this?
Posted by State_Run_Media at 1:32 PM : Jun 11, 2009
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No, we got rid of Bush and his Party of NO! to fix this...
Top U.S. Commander Says "Tough Times Ahead" After Violence Spikes Last Week
Didnt we ellect Obama to fix all of this?
Posted by State_Run_Media
Yes, and it's only been 5 months.
And GW all but abandoned the Afghanistan war.
So this isn't going to be a quick fix.
Some would say, what if modern technology that we give to the Afghan troops gets into the wrong hands?
If that happens, we can go back to Afghanistan after leaving it, and blow them away the enemy if we need to.
Modern technology for the Afghan government won't be a cure-all, but it would help.
That's AS I SEE IT. I'm Mike "Mainer Mike" Brown.
There's only one way to win a war, especially like the one in Afghanistan.
By overwhelming your enemy.
And that's exactly what the United States needs to do to give hope to this situation. How else are we going to stop terrorists from not only killing American troops, but also terrified, innocent civilians that just want the violence to end?
But that can't happen just yet, because a lot of our brave, young women and men are stuck in a battle in Iraq over weapons that never existed there in the first place.
Isn't that just terrific?
That's AS I SEE IT. I'm Mike "Mainer Mike" Brown.
Posted by mysteriousjz at 10:34 AM : Jun 11, 2009
How very 'Simplistic' of you!!!!!
Today, 05:46 PM
Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev is in talks to buy the British quality newspapers The Independent and The Independent on Sunday from Sir Anthony O?Reilley?s Independent news.
http://www.mosnews.com/world/2009/06/11/lebedevindependentbritain/
Is this him???? If you buy up the free press, you can make it say anything you want it to....
Is there another?
Posted by jeffpzzzzzz at 9:56 AM : Jun 11, 2009
Last time I heard phraseology like that was from behind the Iron Curtain. It certainly isn't American......
Posted by jeffpzzzzzz at 9:56 AM : Jun 11, 2009
You left one piece of info out. Who is your oligarch? The Mullahs or some other leader!
All you need to do is to leave behind the politics, the war mongering, and the war mongers. And go speak to the locals, the common man there, speak to Afghan-Americans here, speak to common man in the region.... and you will find out that they all will tell you.... "you are welcome with a passport but not with arms..... and certainly not breaking into their homes, disrespecting their privacy, their women and children..... let alone bombing them in their mudhouses." ......... calling indigenous people of the the land, savages does not justify the brutal and barbaric imperialism.
It is that simple... really!!!!!!!!!!!
ARE A WASTE OF MONEY, A WASTE OF AMERICAN LIVES,
AND WE HAVE ALREADY LOST THE WAR ON TERROR,
WHEN YOU CAN NOT WEAR YOUR SHOES IN THE AIRPORT , YOU LOST
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