The Governor of Afghanistan's Kunar Province,Fazlullah Wahidi, briefed U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gateswhen he visited the U.S. ForwardOperating Base in Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday (9/17).
"The bridges and the roads, that's the most important for security, because Kunar is divided by this river. You see, the river is there, along the road," said Wahidi who enthusiastically told Gates aboutAmerican efforts to improve roads, schools and other services.
At a table ringed mostly bymilitary officers, the conversation focused on civilian issues. ?Like Dan had mentioned about the package of economicdevelopment - all these things, we like to do the balanced development, notthe unbalanced development," said Wahidi.
But at the sametime, Governor Wahidi reported he has asked the U.S. commander in the area fordaily helicopter patrols along one key stretch of new road to help preventinsurgents from placing roadside bombs.
The meeting illustrated thecomplexity of the interlocking problems Secretary Gates is trying to tackle -security, economic development and improved governance.
With a shortage of U.S. diplomatsand aid officials, the military is taking on some civilian duties. Speaking of the importance of road-building,one American general said "asphalt is ammunition" in defeating theinsurgency.
The top U.S. general inAfghanistan, David McKiernan, was frank with reporters about how his mission isprogressing.
"In some places in Afghanistan,there is improving security. In someplaces, there's improving governance. Insome places there's improving prosperity. There are very few places where all three of those come together,"said McKiernan.
The general says"winning" in Afghanistanmay involve scaling back on the goal of establishing a Western-styledemocracy. He says a more realisticobjective is what he calls "viable governance".
"Viable governance that meetsthe people's expectations. It's notgoing to be [like] Peoria, Illinois," said McKiernan.
The general wants about 20,000 moreU.S. troops deployed to Afghanistan. He says he will need them on a sustainedbasis, not for a year-long surge like the one that just ended in Iraq. That would bring the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan to more than 50,000.
Officials acknowledge that it willbe difficult to provide the additional troops from an already strained U.S.military, at least until some can be withdrawn from Iraq. And generals there cautioned against doingthat too quickly when Secretary Gates visited Baghdad at the beginning of theweek. They don't want to risk hard-wonsecurity improvements that they say are still "fragile".
Until recently, U.S. officialswere content to treat Afghanistan as what came to be known as an "economyof force" mission, in which they do what they can with availableforces. Now there is an increased senseof urgency, with violence up 30 percent in the past year, talk of more troops andpossibly some changes in strategy.
But at a news conference in frontof the U.S. embassy in Kabul this week, Secretary Gates noted that the United Statesand NATO have added substantial forces in recent years, and he made this prediction:"In addition to the increased forces that the international partners haveagreed to send, we will be sending additional forces in 2009. And my expectation is that we will be able tomeet the requirements that the commanders have here during the course of2009."
Secretary Gates probably will notbe in office after January 20, when a new president is inaugurated in Washington. But both major presidential candidates -John McCain and Barack Obama - have indicated they also want to do as much aspossible to bring the violence in Afghanistan under control.
A big part of that involvesbuilding the country's new security forces, a project supervised by U.S. ArmyMajor General Robert Cone.
"I'm pretty optimistic aboutwhat can happen here. Although I willtell you, every day is three steps forward, one step back, one step sideways,two steps forward, two steps back. Imean, that's the way it is in this country," says Cone.
Afghanistan's Army is growing about asquickly as U.S.officials believe it possibly can - increasing from about 39,000 to some 65,000in just the past year, with a similar-sized increase planned for the comingyear.
General Cone says the Afghan Armyalready is the most respected institution in the country. But he would not make any prediction aboutwhen it would be ready to maintain security with fewer international forces. He says there is even some concern among topAfghan leaders that the Army could become too popular.