Afghan mission tough but do-able: allied generals

Top US and British military commanders acknowledged the challenges facing allied forces in Afghanistan but insisted that with "substantial commitment" the mission can be successful.

General David Petraeus, the commander of US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, said late Thursday that the Afghan mission required a "sustained, substantial commitment" but was "do-able".

His British colleague meanwhile said Friday that talking to the Taliban would help tackle the violence in Afghanistan, which Petraeus said was now 60 percent higher than last year.

"The challenges in Afghanistan are significant. But the stakes are also high. And while the situation unquestionably is serious, the mission is still do-able," Petraeus said in a speech in London.

He spoke after a massive suicide car bomb killed six Italian soldiers and 10 Afghan civilians Thursday in one of the deadliest attacks on Western troops in Kabul, officials said.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Italy now wants to cut troops in Afghanistan but only with agreement from its NATO partners.

Foreign military deaths in Afghanistan are at record levels -- at least 366 in 2009 -- and the mounting number of Western troops coming home in body bags has sent support for the war plummeting in Europe and the United States.

Petraeus said Taliban militants have "expanded their strength and influence, particularly in places which lack Afghan security forces."

"They benefit from reasonable freedom of movement in border areas, funding their activities from the narcotics industry and donations," he said in a lecture organised by Policy Exchange, a think tank.

He added: "Some of that (increased violence) may be attributable to Afghan forces and ISAF going on the offensive recently," referring to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

The British commander tasked with overseeing a programme of reconciliation with "moderate" elements of the Taliban said talking with the rank-and-file was essential to ending the conflict.

"We need to take a good look at the people we consider to be our enemies. A lot of young men fighting us have not done anything wrong," Lieutenant-General Graeme Lamb, who worked with Petraeus in Iraq, told the Independent.

"They have anger and grievances which have not been addressed. The better life they expected has not materialised; these are the people we must talk to, but we must make sure we have something to offer them," he told the newspaper.

Major General Nick Carter, who will take charge of international troops in southern Afghanistan in November, also said it was important to win over the civilian population to persuade them to back the Afghan state, not the Taliban.

"But I absolutely acknowledge that time is not on our side, and we've got to show positive trends as quickly as we possibly can," he told BBC radio Friday.

The head of the British army, General David Richards, warned defeat for allied forces would have an "intoxicating impact" on extremists around the world.

It would convince terrorists that "anything might be possible", while inflicting an "enduring grand strategic impact" on Britain's global reputation, he said Thursday in the first major speech since taking office last month.

Richards said failure could have an "alienating and potentially catalytic effect" on millions of Afghans, and prompt a resurgence of Al-Qaeda-inspired terrorism.

"Add to that the hugely intoxicating impact on extremists world-wide of the perceived defeat of the USA and NATO, the most powerful alliance in the history of the world, and the debilitating impact on these countries," he said.

Some 100,000 US and NATO-led forces are in Afghanistan helping the government battle the Taliban, whose hardline regime was overthrown in a US-backed invasion in late 2001.