WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday signaled sharply lower expectations for the war in Afghanistan, warning the conflict will be “a long slog” that U.S. and allied military forces — even at higher levels — cannot win alone.
Gates said the U.S. military expects to be able to send three additional combat brigades to Afghanistan from late spring through midsummer to fill a security vacuum “that increasingly has been filled by the Taliban.”
Still he said that he would be “deeply skeptical” of any further U.S. troop increases, saying that Afghan soldiers and police must take the lead, in part so that the Afghan public does not turn against U.S. forces as they have against foreign troops throughout history.
Gates also signaled that missile strikes on Pakistan, which drew fire under former President George W. Bush, will remain in the Obama administration’s arsenal in the war on terror as long as al-Qaida is believed to be in Pakistan. Pakistani officials have protested that such strikes violate the nation’s sovereignty.
Osama bin Laden is believed to be in the lawless tribal region in western Pakistan near the Afghanistan border.
U.S. goals in Afghanistan must be “modest” and “realistic,” Gates said Tuesday in his first congressional testimony as Pentagon chief under President Barack Obama.
“If we set ourselves the objective of creating some sort of central Asian Valhalla over there, we will lose, because nobody in the world has that kind of time, patience and money,” Gates testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Valhalla is used as a synonym for heaven, but in Norse mythology it is a great hall where heroes slain in battle are received.
Civilian casualties resulting from U.S. combat and airstrikes have been particularly harmful to progress in Afghanistan and must be avoided, Gates said. “My worry is that the Afghans come to see us as part of their problem rather than part of their solution; and then we are lost.”
In Afghanistan, U.S. commanders on Tuesday traveled to a poor Afghan village and distributed $40,000 to relatives of 15 people killed in a U.S. raid, including a known militant commander. The Americans also apologized for any civilians killed in the operation.
A raid the night of Jan. 19 killed 15 people in Inzeri, including a targeted militant commander named Mullah Patang. Afghan officials admit that Patang was killed, but villagers say civilians also died.
The U.S. regularly makes payments to Afghan relatives of those killed in operations, but the payments are rarely publicized.
Lt. Col. Steven Weir, a military lawyer who helped oversee the payments, said the payments were not an admission by the U.S. that innocents were killed.
“It’s a condolence payment,” he said. “The villagers said none of them were in the Taliban, just peaceful individuals from the village. So by this payment they will understand it’s not our goal to kill innocent people. This may help them understand we’re here to build a safer and more secure Afghanistan.”
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