AFGHANISTAN

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26 January 2007
Stability Operations Draw on Efforts by 37 Nations in Afghanistan

By Jacquelyn S. Porth
USINFO Staff Writer

Washington – The senior U.S. military commander in Afghanistan reports quiet progress against the Taliban insurgency and an improving infrastructure as a result of a partnership among 37 nations and President Hamid Karzai’s government.

U.S. Army Major General Benjamin Freakley told Pentagon reporters in a video briefing from Bagram Airfield near Kabul, Afghanistan, January 26 that Taliban efforts to impede the international community’s partnership to create “a stable, secure and viable nation state in Afghanistan” have not succeeded.

The Afghan government and the international community have been making steady infrastructure improvements, he said, putting more Afghans to work, increasing the number of children attending school and expanding the capacity of the government to deliver services and influence events in far-flung provinces.

As an example, Freakley said recent U.S. reconstruction funding already has opened the doors of 525 new schools and 539 new health clinics.

Freakley, who heads the Combined Joint Task Force-76, said economic development and educational gains are tied to security which is why NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the Afghan security forces are working hard to provide it.

The $10 billion aid package that the United States plans to provide over the next two years will boost Afghan confidence, he said. The Bush administration announced January 22 that it will seek congressional approval for $8.6 billion in security assistance to train and equip Afghan military forces and another $2 billion for reconstruction. (See related article.)

Freakley said confidence is growing in the Karzai government, the Afghan national army and national police, and in the benefits of ongoing international assistance efforts. From his vantage point, he said, “the majority of the Afghans denounce the Taliban and terrorism and reject the idea of them returning to power.”

NATO foreign ministers who gathered in Brussels, Belgium, for a North Atlantic Council meeting January 26 reaffirmed their commitment to operations in Afghanistan and agreed to take up the issue of additional troop deployments during a February 7-8 meeting in Seville, Spain.

Freakley said only 80 percent of NATO’s troop commitment has been met. NATO has deployed 34,000 forces to Afghanistan and approximately 22,000 U.S. personnel are serving there.

The Pentagon announced January 25 that 3,200 U.S. soldiers with the 10th Mountain Division will serve another four months before returning to the United States. Freakley said the extension of their tour “gives ISAF the ability to continue to conduct offensive operations now and into the summer.”

According to a Defense Department news release, the extension “will provide military capability for NATO to maintain the initiative and build upon the success achieved in promoting stability and security, while denying safe haven for the Taliban.” The department said that the United States remains committed to leading counterterrorism operations, training and equipping Afghan forces and helping rebuild. (See related article.)

In congressional testimony on January 11, the U.S. director of national intelligence said 2007 will be a pivotal year for Afghanistan, and, the ability of the Karzai government, NATO and the United States “to arrest – if not reverse – the resurgence of the Taliban will determine the country’s future.” Ambassador John Negroponte, the administration’s nominee to be deputy secretary of state, said the insurgency is not so much a threat to the Afghan government as it is a deterrent to economic development and a subversion of popular support for President Karzai.

TALIBAN INSURGENCY IS NOT POPULAR IN AFGHANISTAN

Freakley said the Taliban forces have not achieved their objectives in the past year and have been defeated whenever they tried to mass in combat against coalition forces. This has prompted the Taliban’s greater use of indiscriminant roadside bombs, which have taken a high toll on Afghan civilians, he said. Stepped-up coalition efforts have taken 250 bombers out of circulation, he added.

The Taliban revolt “is not a popular insurgency,” Freakley said, describing it as one that is being forced on the population and one that relies on intimidation.

Army Lieutenant General Michael Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told members of Congress January 11 that solidifying central government control requires a sustained international and Afghan security presence “in the volatile Pushtun south and east alongside credible civilian administration.”

Freakley said U.S. and ISAF forces are on the offensive extending their reach into remote areas, routing out hostile forces, and identifying and completing reconstruction projects. The major challenge is providing jobs, he said, so the unemployed are not recruited by insurgents. (See related article.)

For more information, see Rebuilding Afghanistan.

(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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