core sector communique

U.S. Defense Secretary Says Taliban Insurgents Being Turned Back

By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.

Staff Writer

 

Washington - As the United States ends military operations in Iraq this year, more attention and resources are being focused on the mission in Afghanistan, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told a Senate committee September 22.

 

"The core goal of President Obama's strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan is to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaida, to deny it safe haven in the region and to prevent it from again attacking the United States and our allies," Panetta said in prepared testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

 

In late 2001, U.S. military forces quickly toppled the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and drove al-Qaida's leadership out of the country. But in the years following, the U.S. military shifted focus and resources to Iraq and the Taliban insurgency regrouped and threatened to bring down Afghanistan's legitimate government, Panetta said.

 

Under President Obama's strategy, Panetta said, the effort in Afghanistan has the resources and forces that have helped to put Afghans "on a path to assume lead responsibility for security nationwide by the end of 2014."

 

"The insurgency has been turned back in much of the country, including its heartland in the south, and Afghan National Security Forces are increasingly strong and capable," Panetta testified.

 

"This undeniable progress allowed us to begin transitioning to Afghan security control in seven areas of the country in July," Panetta added. Nearly 25 percent of the Afghan population lives in areas where Afghan forces now have the lead responsibility for security.

 

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, also testifying at the Senate hearing, said that, from a military perspective, the security situation in Afghanistan is steadily improving. He said Afghan forces and the International Security Assistance Force troops have wrested the initiative and momentum from the Taliban in several key areas of the country and have forced them out of critical population centers, particularly in the south and southwest.

 

"Our combined forces are placing sustained pressure on insurgent groups," Mullen said. "As a result, the number of insurgent-initiated attacks has for several months been lower than it was at the same time last year."

The United States has begun a drawdown of the surge forces it sent to Afghanistan more than a year ago with July's return of two U.S. Army National Guard battalions, Panetta said. Through the remainder of this year, a total of 10,000 troops will redeploy, and another 23,000 troops will return to the United States by the end of summer 2012, the secretary said.

 

Panetta told senators that the reduction of 33,000 U.S. personnel takes place as more than 50,000 new personnel are being added to the Afghan National Security Forces. "That means by the time we have finished drawing down our surge forces, the insurgents will face more forces than they did during this summer's fighting season - and substantially more of those forces will be Afghan," Panetta said.

 

While the growth in the credibility and capabilities of the Afghan forces is allowing for the transition to continue, another component is the long-term U.S. commitment to Afghanistan's security and stability, Panetta testified. The United States is working with the Afghan government to develop a strategic partnership declaration, which is a framework of mutual commitments that "will help focus the sovereign efforts Afghanistan will take in the years ahead to develop its government, expand its economy and improve its security," he said.

 

Panetta said that because of Iraq's strategic importance in the Middle East, it is in the American national interest that Iraq emerges as a U.S. strategic partner. "Our broader goal moving forward is to build an enduring partnership with the sovereign Iraqi government," he added.

 

Panetta told senators that there are fewer than 50,000 U.S. military forces remaining in Iraq, and based on a November 2008 security agreement between the United States and Iraq, the remaining forces will leave by the end of this year. It remains to be determined if a future training agreement will be developed, depending on what action the Iraqi leadership takes, he said.

 

"Iraq no longer needs large numbers of U.S. forces to maintain internal stability," he testified.

 

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.)