[R-G] Secret report urges new Afghan plan

[Anthony Fenton]

http://mobile.politico.com/story.cfm?id=18337&cat=topnews
Feb 03, 2009
Secret report urges new Afghan plan
By David S. Cloud | 2/3/09 @ 4:23 AM EST

The Pentagon’s top military officers are recommending to President  
Barack Obama that he shift U.S. strategy in Afghanistan — to focus on  
ensuring regional stability and eliminating Taliban and Al Qaida safe  
havens in Pakistan, rather than on achieving lasting democracy and a  
thriving Afghan economy, officials said.

The recommendations to narrow U.S. goals are contained in a classified  
report by the Joint Chiefs of Staff that is likely to be shown soon to  
Obama as part of a review of Afghanistan strategy announced by the new  
administration.

Obama is expected to announce soon his decision on a request for  
additional forces from the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen.  
David McKiernan. Several officials said they believe the president  
will approve sending three additional combat brigades to Afghanistan,  
totaling roughly 10,000 to 12,000 troops.

But a decision by Obama about whether to approve a more far-reaching  
shift in U.S. objectives in Afghanistan will be made later as part of  
the strategy review, the officials said. In addition to the Joint  
Chiefs, Obama will hear recommendations from Gen. David Petraeus, in  
charge of U.S. Central Command, and from Richard Holbrooke, Obama’s  
civilian envoy to Afghanistan. The review is not expected to be  
completed for several months.

As he weighs his options, Obama will have to balance his calls during  
the campaign for intensified effort in Afghanistan against recent  
warnings by some of his senior advisers, including Defense Secretary  
Robert Gates, of the dangers of getting deeply engaged in a place that  
has a long and bloody history of resisting foreign occupations.

Obama has indicated in recent weeks that he favors the idea of setting  
limited objectives, including ensuring that Afghanistan "cannot be  
used as a base to launch attacks against the United States." He cited  
the need for "more effective military action" while warning of Afghan  
hostility to foreign troops. His "No. 1 goal" is to stop Al Qaida, he  
said.

The Chiefs' recommendations have been approved by Admiral Mike Mullen,  
chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and seen by Gates, one official said. In  
calling for narrowing U.S. goals, the report reflects concern on the  
part of some Army and Marine commanders about sending thousands of  
additional American troops to fight in what could be a lengthy  
conflict in Afghanistan.

Though Obama is likely to approve the three additional three brigades,  
the Chiefs considered and rejected the option of a recommending an  
even larger “surge” for Afghanistan, the officials said. More troops  
could still be approved as part of the strategy review, another  
official emphasized.

In their report, the Chiefs concluded that the existing American goals  
in Afghanistan, established by the Bush administration, are overly  
broad and ambitious. The report does not call for abandoning U.S.  
hopes of turning Afghanistan into a moderate Western-style democracy,  
or for halting counternarcotics efforts, but it does suggest making  
those steps part of a long-term vision, rather than a goal.

With insurgent violence in Afghanistan worsening significantly during  
the last year, the Chiefs' report argues for setting more concrete  
objectives that are achievable and realistic in the short-term, the  
officials said.

Obama already has demonstrated his willingness to employ U.S. strikes  
using unmanned aircraft in Pakistan’s largely lawless western border  
region, a tactic originated by the Bush administration.

But the Chiefs are recommending a broader effort to train and equip  
Pakistani security forces to conduct counter-insurgency operations in  
the tribal areas, and to apply pressure on Pakistan’s military and  
intelligence services to sever their ties with militants, one of the  
officials said.

Amid growing concern about the stability of Pakistan, the Chiefs'  
report also calls for putting renewed focus by the U.S. government on  
ensuring that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons remain under its government’s  
control, the officials said. Though that has long been a U.S. aim, the  
officials said that including it in the report was a way to focus new  
attention on the problem in case militant groups threaten Pakistan’s  
stability.

Capt. John Kirby, a spokesman for Mullen, declined to comment on the  
contents of the report.

In a speech on Monday to the Reserve Officers Association, Mullen  
stressed the need to halt the Al Qaida and Taliban use of the  
Pakistan’s border regions as safe haven from which to mount attacks in  
Afghanistan. “We cannot accept that Al Qaeda leadership, which  
continues to plan against us every single day” has a “safe haven in  
Pakistan” and “could resume one in Afghanistan,” he said.

Mullen did not mention the Chief’s Afghanistan report in his remarks.

Gates has also called publicly in recent weeks for setting modest,  
near-term goals for Afghanistan.

“This is going to be a long slog, and frankly, my view is that we need  
to be very careful about the nature of the goals we set for ourselves  
in Afghanistan," he told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "If we  
set ourselves the objective of creating some sort of central Asian  
Valhalla over there, we will lose, because nobody in the world has  
that kind of time, patience and money,” he added.

As a presidential candidate, Obama described Afghanistan as a central  
front in combating terror, drawing a distinction with the Bush  
administration, which argued that it was in Iraq. Two of the three  
combat brigades that the Pentagon is recommending he send to  
Afghanistan are now designated for Iraq and would be redirected, if  
Obama backs McKiernan’s recommendation.

On Monday, in a quarterly report required by Congress on security  
conditions in Afghanistan, the Pentagon reported that “the spring and  
summer of 2008 saw the highest levels of violence” since the U.S.  
invasion in 2001. “The Taliban regrouped after its fall from power and  
has coalesced into a resilient and evolving insurgency,” concluded the  
report. Between January and Dec. 10, 2008, 132 U.S. personnel in  
Afghanistan died as the result of hostile action, up from 82 in 2007.