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US military chiefs call for more troops in Afghanistan

Melbourne Age - August 25, 2009

Helene Cooper, Afghanistan – Military commanders with the NATO mission in Afghanistan have told US President Barack Obama's chief envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke, that they don't have enough troops to do their job.

The commanders emphasised problems in southern Afghanistan, where Taliban insurgents continue to bombard towns and villages with rockets despite a new influx of US troops, and in eastern Afghanistan, where the Haqqani network of militants has become the main source of attacks.

The possibility that more troops will be needed in Afghanistan presents the Obama Administration with a new problem in dealing with a war that has lost popularity at home.

This has been compounded by questions over the credibility of the US-backed Afghan Government, which has just held a presidential election beset by complaints of fraud.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's top challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, has widened his allegations of fraud, saying ballots marked for the incumbent were coming in from volatile southern districts where no vote was held, and that turnout was being reported as 40 per cent in areas where only 10 per cent of voters cast ballots.

The debate about troop numbers comes as the top US commander in the region, General Stanley McChrystal, works to complete a major strategy review, and as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, described a worsening situation in Afghanistan despite the recent addition of 17,000 US troops.

"I think it is serious, and it is deteriorating," Admiral Mullen said on CNN's State of the Union program on Sunday. "The Taliban insurgency has gotten better, more sophisticated, in their tactics." '

Republican senator and former presidential candidate John McCain said there weren't enough US troops in Afghanistan and that General McChrystal should suggest a specific number.

The US needed to "clear and hold and secure an environment for people so that political and economic progress can be made", Senator McCain told ABC television's This Week program.

Over the past two days, Mr Holbrooke has visited the four regional military command centres in Afghanistan, and the message from all four was that more troops were needed.

With the forces added by the Obama Administration, the number of US soldiers and marines in Afghanistan is now about 57,000. It is unclear whether the commanders who spoke to Mr Holbrooke told him exactly how many additional forces may be required.

A Canberra spokesman for Defence Minister John Faulkner said Australia had just sent 500 additional personnel to Afghanistan and had not been asked to send more.

Speaking to Afghan reporters at the NATO base in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, Mr Holbrooke said the new strategy would include reaching out to members of the Taliban who showed a willingness to lay down their arms.

Many Taliban fighters, Mr Holbrooke said, "fight because they're misguided, or because they want a job. Anyone who renounces al-Qaeda and comes back to work peacefully in the Afghan system will be welcome." (New York Times, Agencies)

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