BARACK Obama’s deadline to start withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan has given Taliban insurgents hope they can prevail in the war, the US says.
US Marine commandant General James Conway said yesterday the insurgents would be disappointed when they found that no major withdrawal was on the horizon for US forces deployed in the Taliban heartland of southern Afghanistan.
“In some ways, we think right now it’s probably giving our enemy sustenance,” General Conway said of next year’s target date. “We think that he may be saying to himself — in fact, we’ve intercepted communications that say, ‘Hey, you know, we only have to hold out for so long’.”
The American in charge of training Afghan forces, Lieutenant-General William Caldwell, on Tuesday played down prospects for a major transfer of security duties to the Afghans for at least another year.
General Conway’s comments are sure to fuel debate over the US President’s war strategy and next July’s date, providing ammunition for Republicans, who have blasted the deadline as showing a lack of resolve in the nearly nine-year-old war.
Mr Obama’s fellow Democrats in congress and White House officials defend the deadline as a way of pushing Afghan leaders to take charge of their security.
The administration also has to contend with growing public opposition to the war and calls from the left-wing of his own party for a quick troop pullout.
General Conway said Taliban foot soldiers would probably suffer a blow to morale after next July passes with no dramatic departure of US forces, “and come the fall we’re still there hammering them like we have been”.
The general, just back from a visit to Afghanistan, said government army and police forces in key southern provinces would not be ready to take over from foreign troops for at least “a few years”, and that he had told his marines to brace for a long fight.
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