Insurgents' Tenacity in Southern Afghanistan Surprises NATO
08 September 2006
NATO commander seeks additional armored helicopters and air transport
Washington – The recent tenacity demonstrated by Afghan insurgents in southern Afghanistan reflects their attempt to test NATO’s resolve, but that opposition will be quelled, says the alliance’s supreme commander in Europe, U.S. Marine Corps General James Jones.
Jones, speaking to reporters via teleconference September 7 from his headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, said the NATO International Security Assistance Force, which took over responsibility for the restive southern region of the country at the beginning of September, knew it would be “stirring up a hornet’s nest.” (See related article.)
Jones had just returned from a three-day trip to Afghanistan, where he escorted NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and the North Atlantic Council to Kabul and Khandahar. During the visit, the group met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who signed a long-term partnership agreement with the alliance.
Jones, who also serves as commander of all U.S. military forces in Europe, said that although the tenacity of the resistance in southern Afghanistan had come as a “bit of a surprise,” it was “by no means unmanageable.”
He said NATO troops have been fighting there as part of “Operation Medusa” against forces that now are standing and fighting rather than attacking and fading away as they have done in the past. All this is happening in a region where Jones said the Karzai government has conducted little outreach, the Taliban has had strong influence, there has been a marginal Afghan military presence, corruption has been rampant, local police have been ineffective and narcotics cartels have long been powerful. (See related article.)
JONES WILL ASK NATO FOR MORE AIRCRAFT FOR AFGHAN MISSION
Although Jones said he expects the current battle to end favorably, he still plans to ask NATO defense ministers at a two-day meeting in Warsaw beginning September 8 to provide commanders in Afghanistan with additional military resources, including a squadron of armored helicopters and a few C-130 transport aircraft, needed to hasten the completion of the job. These aircraft will round out NATO’s ground force in southern Afghanistan, he said, and ensure the mission is achieved more quickly and with fewer casualties.
Jones also said success in Afghanistan will depend on “the cohesion and the consistent support of the international aid structure.” Afghanistan’s success will be tied to the government’s ability “to expand its reach and bring hope and new standards of living and opportunities” to its people, he said.
Because this is not a military problem, it cannot be fixed through a military solution, said Jones, adding, “We shouldn’t … become too enamored with the idea that the military is going to be able to do everything.”
“The military sets the conditions,” he said, “but it will all be for naught if a focused and cohesive international effort isn’t brought to bear immediately following the military successes that I know we’re going to have in the very near future, particularly in the southern region.”
When asked about the number of NATO troop serving in the hot zone of southern Afghanistan, Jones said around 6,000 are assigned there.
IMPACT OF PAKISTAN-WAZIRSTAN AGREEMENT REMAINS TO BE SEEN
Because Jones also made a side trip to Islamabad, Pakistan, before returning to Belgium, he was asked to assess the September 5 agreement between the Pakistani government and the leaders in Waziristan. “We’ll just have to wait and see how the agreement plays out,” he said. The parties to the agreement hope that if it is adhered to, he said, it will lead to better border control with the territorial integrity of both Pakistan and Afghanistan garnering more respect. (See related article.)
Jones said it will be most important for NATO military commanders and political leaders to stay in touch with Pakistan to “make sure that the synergy and the effort is harmonized in such a way as to really make some good progress along the border, because there’s no question that the transit routes are causing problems, particularly in the southern part of Afghanistan right now.”
The transcript of Jones’ comments is available on the Defense Department’s Web site.
The text of the new NATO-Afghan partnership agreement is posted on the alliance’s Web site.
For more information, see Rebuilding Afghanistan and International Security.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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