IN what could be NATO’s worst month for casualties since 2001, US politicians have voiced fears about the American-led war in Afghanistan.
With NATO suffering 12 casualties in two days, Democrat and Republican senators questioned yesterday whether the Obama administration could really begin withdrawing troops mid-next year and whether it had a plan for forging a political settlement.
“We need a better definition of exactly what the definition of success is in Afghanistan,” said Democrat John Kerry, chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee opening a hearing at which special envoy Richard Holbrooke was grilled on US policy. “We absolutely need to know what a political solution looks like and how we get there.”
The hearing followed reports that eight American soldiers had been killed in 24 hours, bringing to 33 the number of US troops killed this month. There are currently about 100,000 US troops there.
Of the 12 NATO troops killed in the past few days, four were British and eight American. On Tuesday, a renegade Afghan soldier killed three members of a British Gurkha battalion on a base in Helmand, including a sleeping British major.
Also on Tuesday nine Afghan civilians were killed in Helmand when the minivan they were travelling in hit a roadside bomb – the Taliban’s weapon of choice.
A spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said insurgents had killed more than 160 Afghan civilians since June 1.
At least 365 NATO soldiers have died in the conflict so far this year, compared with 521 for all of last year.
Commanders have warned of more casualties as 30,000 additional US troops arrived as part of a drive to clear the Taliban strongholds of southern Kandahar and Helmand, and build local governments capable of commanding popular support.
The costs are pressing on Democrats and Republicans alike, many of whom face the voters in November.
Senator Kerry, a Vietnam veteran, said he worried the troop surge would not be sufficient to pacify the city of Kandahar, the Taliban’s spiritual capital.
“Prior to American troops announcing they were going to go in (to Kandahar), there were not assassinations,” he said. “The mere announcement has now brought on the process of assassination and intimidation, and I doubt that we are going to have enough troops to be able to . . . pacify the city.”
Republican senator Richard Lugar of Indiana said there was “substantial concern” about the course of the war in part due to the “disruption” caused by President Barack Obama’s firing last month of General Stanley McChrystal.
“The lack of clarity in Afghanistan does not end with the President’s timetable (for withdrawal),” Senator Lugar said. “Both civilian and military operations in Afghanistan are proceeding without a clear definition of success.”
Other senators pressed Mr Holbrooke on whether the administration had a plan to reconcile feuds and bring enough stability to permit troops to withdraw from the longest war in American history.
Mr Holbrooke said building Afghanistan’s agricultural sector, legal system, governance capabilities and infrastructure were part of the effort to stop the country reverting to a Taliban-run sanctuary for jihadis.
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