Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai (C) performs the 'Tawaf' circling the Kaabah after the Organisation of Islamic (OIC) meeting in Mecca December 8, 2005. REUTERS/Zainal Abd Halim

NATO Will Expand Security Forces in Afghanistan

Alliance forces will be operating in three-quarters of the country - By Merle D. Kellerhals Jr. Washington File Staff Writer (USDOS)

Washington -- NATO foreign ministers agreed December 8 to expand the alliance's International Security Assistance Force mission in Afghanistan by deploying 6,000 more troops into the southern region, according to a NATO communiqué.

"When the expansion takes place next year, it will mean NATO is operating in three-quarters of the territory of Afghanistan," Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said during a press conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

"Afghanistan remains our focus as we help this country to build its future, expanding our NATO presence throughout the country." De Hoop Scheffer said that NATO's engagement there has been instrumental in the progress that has been achieved. The 26-nation alliance is completing a two-day foreign ministers meeting.

"We are committed to the continuing success of the U.N.-mandated, NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in all its aspects and have today [December 8] agreed to move NATO's support for peace and security in Afghanistan to a new level," the NATO communiqué said.

The NATO-led security force, whose focus is peace and stability operations, has approximately 9,000 troops from 36 countries stationed in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and the relatively calm northern and western regions. NATO took command of that security force in 2003, two years after a U.S.-led coalition overthrew the Taliban regime.

The U.S.-led security force currently operates in the southern and eastern regions of Afghanistan searching for terrorists and remnants of the Taliban army under the command of "Operation Enduring Freedom."

NATO said it will station an additional 6,000 troops into the southern region beginning in early 2006. The objective is to give NATO more scope in helping local Afghan military and police forces with training and other security tasks such as disarming illegal armed groups.

NATO said that the United Kingdom, Canada and the Netherlands are scheduled to lead the expansion into the south.

Some of the forces operating in Afghanistan work under different rules of engagement, which means some engage only in logistical support while others provide combat troops, NATO said.

According to the communiqué, NATO will:

• Assist the Afghan government in extending its authority;

• Conduct stability and security operations in coordination with Afghan national security forces;

• Mentor and support the Afghan army to increase its capability and reach;

• Support Afghan government efforts to disarm illegally armed groups;

• Operate and maintain security for Kabul International Airport;

• Assist the Afghan National Police with training and in their interaction with the national army;

• Advise and support the Afghan government on border security strategy;

• Support Afghan government counternarcotics efforts; and

• Assist with other key elements of security-sector reform, in close cooperation with the G8 [Group of Eight most industrialized] nations.

The communiqué also said NATO will work to assist Afghan authorities in implementing internationally accepted standards for prisoner detention.

Finally, De Hoop Scheffer said NATO has agreed to develop a long-term program of support to Afghanistan at the request of President Hamid Karzai. The program will focus on helping authorities with defense and security sector reforms.

US troop reduction likely in Afghanistan with NATO expansion

US troop levels are likely to come down in Afghanistan next year as a NATO-led force expands its presence to the volatile south of the country, the commander of US forces there said.

"If NATO does move down to the south, clearly I can expect with the adjustment of forces there could be less US presence in that region," Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry said.

Eikenberry, who said there are now about 18,000 US troops in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, would not predict how many American troops might come home.

Alliance foreign ministers agreed earlier Thursday in Brussels on a plan to expand the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) into the south next year.

The move is part of a transition that could ultimately bring the US and ISAF forces under NATO's command. The general said the NATO troops who will be deployed in the south will have "sufficient rules of engagement to vigorously fight the threat that exists in that area."

He said the United States would contribute to the NATO force and maintain an army aviation force in southern Zaboul province. The US-led force and ISAF have had separate roles in Afghanistan in the years since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001.

American-led combat forces have been fighting militants in the south and along the country's volatile eastern border with Pakistan, while ISAF has kept the peace in Kabul and gradually expanded its reach to less troubled regions in the north and west.

The latest expansion will add 6,000 NATO troops to the 9,500-strong ISAF.

It comes amid an upsurge of violence as US and Afghan forces press deeper into remote areas where sympathy for the Taliban remains strong.

And militants have introduced suicide bombings and roadside explosions this year, mimicking tactics that insurgents have used to devastating effect in Iraq.

Eikenberry said militants in Afghanistan were receiving foreign funding, but he said the US military has found no direct links to the Iraqi insurgency.

"We have no concrete evidence about, let's say, fighters or facilitators moving from Iraq into Afghanistan and conducting direct training of the Taliban forces or the associated movements of Al-Qaeda," he said.

While acknowledging the rise in suicide bombings and attacks with improvised explosive devices, Eikenberry said the US military saw no sign that the situation is slipping toward an Iraqi-style insurgency.

He noted a recent poll by ABC News that found that 77 percent of Afghans say their country is headed in the right direction; 91 percent preferred the current elected government to the Taliban and 87 percent said the US-led overthrow of the Taliban was good for the country.

"If you're on their side and looking at the trends that are out there right now, the tide of history's moving against you," Eikenberry said, referring to the Taliban and other likeminded rebel groups.

"So a shift in tactics is not necessarily a sign of strength," he said. "My belief is that the shift in tactics right now is very much a sign of weakness."

Afghan Leader Says Foreign Troops to Stay 10 Years - RFE/RL 12/08/2005

President Hamid Karzai said in a television interview on 6 December that U.S.-led coalition forces will likely be needed in Afghanistan for 10 years. "We started to build the army and today we have 30,000 soldiers and the figure will reach 70,000," Karzai told Saudi Al-Ikhbariyah TV while in Mecca for a meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

"We need to train the police and this requires several years. If you come to Afghanistan, you will see the huge size of destruction that was inflicted on these heroic Muslim people. There was nothing left there. We started the reconstruction process of everything, roads, hospitals, schools, clinics, and institutions.... We will need five years for the infrastructure and 10 years for other things," Karzai said. "As soon as Afghanistan's army and police get stronger as well as Afghanistan's institutions, the forces will leave and we will no longer need them in our country."

Three elite Canadian troops injured in Afghanistan

Kandahar (AFP) - Three members of Canada's special forces were "recently" wounded during operations in Afghanistan, although two of them have since returned to duty, Canada's defense ministry said.

The third injured soldier is still being treated in hospital, the ministry said in a statement. The government released few other details on the incident, but Canadian media have reported that the three soldiers were likely injured during confrontations Sunday in southern Afghanistan between Taliban rebels and Afghan troops.

"One soldier is being treated in hospital. The others were treated for their injuries and have returned to their unit," the ministry said.

Canada has had troops in Afghanistan since 2003 helping to stabilize and rebuild the country after the hardline Taliban government was removed in a US-led operation in late 2001.

Poll: Most in Afghanistan Say Life Better

Washington (AP) - More than three-fourths of the people living in Afghanistan say living conditions, security from crime and freedom of expression have improved from the days when they were living under Taliban rule, an ABC News poll says.

On the questions of jobs and economic opportunity, people are evenly divided on whether economic opportunities are better or worse.

Almost nine in 10 — 87 percent — say the U.S.-led overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 was a good thing for the people of Afghanistan. And three-fourths of Afghans say their country is headed in the right direction, far higher than in the United States, where only three of 10 say that.

The optimism comes in a country where people say by a 2-1 margin that their own economic situation is bad, medical care is limited and basic services like electricity are not available for many people. Six in 10 Afghans say attacks on U.S. troops cannot be justified, while three in 10 say they can.

The poll of 1,089 adults was conducted by Charney Research with field work by the Afghan Center for Social and Opinion Research in Kabul from Oct. 8-18 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

The 'enemy central' province in Afghanistan - By Andrew North and Bilal Sarwary - BBC News, Kabul and Kunar - Thursday, 8 December 2005

As the US military's battle to subdue the Taleban and other rebel groups in Afghanistan moves into its fifth year, one eastern province bordering Pakistan has increasingly become a symbol of its difficulties.

Despite several major American offensives in Kunar over the past year, the militants keep re-grouping - many of them foreign fighters with al-Qaeda backing.

The trouble it has had in this area has led US forces to use psychological operations, or 'psy-ops' tactics, that one US human rights group alleges could have broken the Geneva conventions governing armed conflict.

US troops have been broadcasting messages which Human Rights Watch says implicitly threatens "collective punishment" for people of the valley. It was in Kunar that US forces suffered their worst single loss of life in Afghanistan since they first invaded in 2001 in response to the 9/11 attacks.

One of their helicopters was shot down in late June, killing all 16 special forces and crew on board. The situation there bears comparison with that facing US troops in western Iraq battling Sunni rebels and al-Qaeda militants - although casualties there are far higher.

Every time they try to clear an area, the insurgents move elsewhere and then return when the Americans have gone. That is what militant groups have been doing all year in Kunar, according to local officials and residents of the province who spoke to the BBC.

The difficult, high altitude terrain is on their side. So too, say these officials, is the presence of a nearby safe haven - the tribal areas of neighbouring Pakistan. They say many militants fled there after the most recent nine-day American offensive in late November.

In a press release about Operation 'Sorkh Khar' - which translates as Operation Red Donkey - the US military described it as a "success" in dominating "the enemy in what has been a staging area in Kunar."

But residents and officials in the province - who asked not to be named because of security concerns - said many insurgents had now returned. The stronghold of these groups - and the focus of many US operations - has been the steep, forested Korengal valley, to the north-west of the provincial capital, Asadabad.

It was here that the US Chinook helicopter was shot down on 28 June, after being sent in to rescue a special forces unit on the ground whose mission had been compromised. Three members of that four-man team were also killed.

The valley has become a kind of meeting place for anti-American militants of all shades. "Enemy central" in the words of one US soldier who's been there. Local officials have said for some time that supporters of the Taleban and al-Qaeda have been increasingly working together there.

They also co-operate with militants from Hizb-e Islami Gulbuddin, a group led by hardline Islamist former mujahideen commander and one time Afghan prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. His whereabouts are unknown, but he is one of the key targets of US forces in the region.

So too is the man said to be al-Qaeda's leader in Kunar, an Arab called Abu Ikhlas al-Misri, who fought the Russians in the region during the 1980s and has lived there ever since, marrying locally.

In turn, he is believed to work closely with a Taleban commander known as Ahmad Shah, who US commanders believe was involved in bringing down the helicopter.

Add to this difficult mix "criminal activity", according to Lt-Col Jerry O'Hara, chief spokesman at the US military's main operational base Bagram - with many people involved in smuggling "drugs, timber and gems".

But the US is not losing in Kunar or its Korengal valley in particular, he insists. "We're not letting go of that area." But in the long term, he says, "the solution there is not going to be a military one. It's about the Afghan government and security forces taking over."

One tactic US forces have recently tried is to broadcast messages on local radio in the name of Kunar's governor calling on Korengal residents to expel "enemy fighters living in their areas".

It's all part of an approach used nationwide by the US-led coalition, to try to undermine support for militants in these areas. And despite the intense militant activity in Kunar, Afghan officials say many people there only provide support under pressure. The BBC obtained a copy of one broadcast from officials in the province who requested anonymity.

They said they had been given the message by American personnel from a local base and believed that is where it had been written, even though it was in the name of the governor and his deputy.

This is how it ends:

"if they [the people of Korengal] are not going to comply with the demands of expelling the enemy from their villages then we will be forced to continue to pursue the enemy relentlessly until the elders either force them to leave or the hand of our national security troops force them out. The people of Korengal are either with the people of Kunar or against them."

However, when asked about the message, the US military said it was not their work. "I am told we did not write this document; that it was written by the governor," said Lt Colonel Laurent Fox, a spokesman at its headquarters in Kabul, in an e-mailed response.

However, his statement confirmed that US troops had put it out. "I was told that CJTF-76 (the operational name of the US-led coalition force in Afghanistan) did transcribe it after it came out and ran some messages based on this letter on Peace radio in that area."

But according to Human Rights Watch, regardless of the document's original authorship, broadcasting the message to the people of Korengal could break international conventions.

"It contains a barely veiled threat of collective punishment," said Sam Zarifi, its research director for Asia. "Making such a threat is a violation of the Geneva conventions and other laws of war."

Lt Colonel Laurent Fox said the aim of transmitting the message was to use "non-lethal means against anti-government personnel." However, some Afghan officials involved in disseminating the broadcast said they were not happy about the language, which they described as "how the foreigners speak".

UN hostel manager wounded in Afghanistan drive-by shooting
(AFP) 8 December 2005

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The manager of a United Nations guesthouse was shot and badly wounded on Thursday by unidentified gunmen riding motorcycles in southern Afghanistan, officials said. The attackers opened fire as Assadullah, who runs the UN hostel in the southern city of Kandahar as he was going to work.

“He was attacked at around 7:00 this morning (0230 GMT) by unknown people riding motorbikes,” Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in Kabul.

“He was shot to the stomach, operated on and is in stable condition. He’s not employed by UNAMA, but he’s the manager of a UN guesthouse. He works for a private compagny that rents the guesthouse to the UN.”

The motive for the attack was not known. The victim’s father, Ahmad Qureshi, said: “We didn’t have any personal enmities with anyone. I’m not sure, but I believe it was the work of the Taleban.”

Afghan legislators receive orientation under project jointly designed by UN - Source: United Nations News Service - Date: 08 Dec 2005

New members of the Afghan National Assembly, the Loya Jirga, which opens on 19 December after a three-decade break, will undergo a week-long orientation programme on the functions they will be performing for the next five years under a project co-sponsored by the United Nations.

Designed and implemented jointly by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the SEAL (Support to Establishment of Afghan Legislature) project and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the programme includes introductions to the constitution, rules and procedures of legislation and the budget process.

The 249 members of the lower house, Wolesi Jirga (the House of People), all elected, and the 102 members of the upper house, Meshrano Jirga (the House of Elders), some of them appointed, will receive the training in three groups beginning on Saturday.

The programme will be conducted by Afghan academicians, professors of political science and Constitutional Law, as well as international consultants.

Coca-Cola returns to Afghanistan - Drinks Business Review 12/08/2005

Coca-Cola is returning to Afghanistan after a 15-year absence with the opening of a $25 million bottling plant on the outskirts of Kabul, according to an FT report.

The plant represents a major investment for the country, and the plant's operators expect to initially create 600 jobs, with the possibility of generating 8000 more through allied industries. The Financial Times has reported that the production of Coke, Sprite and Fanta starts this week.

Currently, Coca-Cola is imported from Pakistan, making the cost of a can 18 Afghani (40 US cents). Locally produced Coke will only cost six Afghani if the customer recycles the bottle.

"We are very optimistic about Afghanistan. We are looking at huge growth because of the affordability," Ali-us-Sajjad Khan, COO of the Habib Gulzar Non-Alcoholic Beverages Firm, the franchisee of Coca-Cola, told the Financial Times. "This is an American icon, so we have tried to push the local franchise as much as possible."

Coke used to be popular in Afghanistan in the 1970's, but a quarter of a century of war has wrecked the infrastructure. The company had to build a separate facility to produce the carbon dioxide gas needed to make the drink fizzy and generate its own power for the 60,000 square meter plant.

Ariana Afghan Airlines to Start E-Ticketing - Asia Pulse 12/08/2005

KABUL - Ariana Afghan Airlines (AAA), the national flag carrier, Wednesday started e-ticketing to bring further improvements in its operations and facilitate reservations for customers.

The new system would enable the customers to reserve tickets through the Internet. The process would be given practical shape in the next three weeks.

In a talk with Pajhwok Afghan News, the AAA chief Mohammad Nadir Atash described the step as a landmark progress in establishing the national flag career on a modern footing and bringing it to par with the international carriers.

He said the new system would allow customers from inside as well outside the country to reserve seats on Ariana. To familiarise employees with the new system, 20 officials of the company were imparted training by Lufthansa in Germany and a group of 20 more would be sent there for training in the next three months, he added. (Pajhwok Afghan News)

Afghanistan's Early Enforcement Of Tax Law Draws Criticism - Asia Pulse
12/08/2005

KABUL - While economists have expressed satisfaction over the previous year performance of the Afghan Finance Ministry, its failure to privatise scores of governmental enterprises and early implementation of the new tax laws are being subjected to criticism.

The Finance Ministry has already presented its annual report during the Accountability Week which attracted mixed reaction. Although the ministry reckoned implementation of the income tax law as one of its big achievements, majority of experts described it a pre-mature step.

Under the law, all government and private employees, whose monthly salary exceeds 12,500 afghanis, would be liable to pay income tax. Besides, all companies will have to pay 20 per cent tax on their incomes.

Economists believe the implementation of the new tax law is not only a premature step, the ratio of tax on individual and companies' profits was also too high. This will discourage traders, businessmen and entrepreneurs from new ventures which are necessary for the fledgling economy of the country.

The government should first concentrate on giving incentives to investors and providing them with facilities like electricity, which is the lifeline for the industrial sector, improve means of communications as well as ensure security across the country.

Hamidullah Farooqi, Professor of Economics Department at the Kabul University, appreciated reforms like elimination of red-tape in the ministry's works but slammed the ministry for, what he called, sluggish approach to promote trade and investment in the country.

Another economist Professor Ahmad Masoud at the Nangarhar University said the government should have taken into consideration the social condition of the people before taking drastic steps like implementation of income tax on the salary class and the industrial and commercial sector.

"Ironically, the government stressed more on collecting taxes but did not consider its side effects on social sector, which is struggling to come out of years of stagnation," said Professor Masoud. He suggested the current tax law should be reviewed by experts to amend it in line with the standard of living of the people.

The ministry, on the other hand, justified the implementation of the law, saying it would help boost revenues of the government. They believe this was the basic step to fund the country's budget from domestic resources.

Asad Sakhi Farhad, deputy finance minister for customs and revenues, said the government was determined to finance its budget completely from domestic income during the next five years and implementation of tax on individuals and companies was the first step to achieve that end.

But Fazal Ahmad Joya, Professor of economics, said although the tax measures would help generate revenues, it would create more problems than producing benefits, which also included slowing down of the pace of fresh investment.

Besides the tax issue, none of the 72 government-run companies and enterprises have so far been privatised. Asked for comments, senior official of the Finance Ministry Abdul Razaq Samadi said a few of those enterprises were operational at scaled-down level while others were in a poor state. Of the 40,000 employees of those units, more than 20,000 were making ends meet by renting out portions of their houses or other properties.

Officials of the ministry said a law had been prepared to restart all the deficient units across the country and enable them to generate income. The law would soon be approved.

The third area is the revenues from customs. Officials say they have collected about five billion afghanis (US$116.95 million) in the first six months of the year which show an increase of 25 per cent compared to the last three years.

Presenting his ministry's performance report, Finance Minister Anwarul Haq Ahadi claimed they had brought all the revenues under control. In the past, custom revenues would not be submitted with the government, but the whole sum was now collected in the national ex-chequer, he added.

Hailing the move, Professor Masoud said though there still existed some loopholes, yet bringing the customs revenues under the control of the government was a great achievement.

Sources in the Finance Ministry said the government would spend US$1.2 billion out of the US$4.3 billion development budget which is totally funded by donors this year.

Despite the ministry's efforts, it could bring very slight change in getting the aid money compared to last year by channelling about 27 per cent of the budget i.e. the US$1.2 billion.

Professor Masoud blamed the donors for not handing over the amount to the government to be spent on the post-conflict country. (Pajhwok Afghan News)

3 Get Suspended Sentences in Afghan Trial - The Associated Press
12/07/2005

KABUL - An Afghan court convicted two Britons and an Indian on gun smuggling charges, giving them two-year suspended sentences following a one-day trial. An American was cleared.

Sargon Heinrich, of Rio Visat, Calif.; Naveen Joshi, of India; and Britons, Peter Eaton and Mike Shaw, have been jailed since their Oct. 13 arrests during a police raid on a guest house in the capital, Kabul. They had faced prison terms of up to six years.

Prosecutors claimed they were involved in a deal to sell 100 guns to an undercover police officer who was posing as a buyer. The men denied the charges and said they were treated roughly during the raid. Joshi claimed police beat a confession out of him.

The chief judge in the case, Anasarullah Mawlawy Zada, said the three-judge panel decided that Eaton, Shaw and Joshi would be given time served and two-year suspended sentences, meaning they can be released after providing guarantees that they will return to court if the case is appealed _ as the prosecutor vowed. Heinrich was ordered released subject to the same guarantee.

Eaton, 51, of Milford Haven in Wales, called the trial a "circus" but said he was "very happy" he was not sentenced to prison. Shaw, 46, of Sheffield, England, said he hopes he would be home for Christmas but stressed he was not guilty. "A suspended sentence for what?" he said.

The Britons and Heinrich, 40, all said they had guns for their own protection in violence-plagued Afghanistan, but said the smuggling charges were baseless. Heinrich called the prosecutor's claim "ludicrous."

Joshi, 33, of Bombay, told the judge he was tortured. He said police beat him and threatened him with death, and that he signed a statement implicating himself and Eaton out fear of further abuse.

Several killed in Pakistan blast - BBC News, 8 December 2005

At least 12 people have been killed and 30 injured in a bomb explosion in Pakistan's troubled tribal area bordering Afghanistan, officials say. The blast ripped through a hotel and shops in a market in Jandola town in South Waziristan.

Earlier this week four soldiers were kidnapped in South Waziristan and 15 people killed in clashes in neighbouring North Waziristan. It is the worst violence in the region for several weeks.

The central government began deploying soldiers in large numbers in the tribal areas two years ago to counter the movements of members of the Taleban, al-Qaeda and their supporters.

The BBC's Aamer Ahmed Khan in Karachi says the army is in control of the main population centres and road routes. However, he says the military cannot reduce its heavy presence because it has not been able to gain the trust of many of the tribesmen there.

There were two explosions in Jandola town on Thursday. The first one was the hotel bomb that left 12 dead, officials say. The hotel is situated on land owned by the army.

It is not clear who planted the device. The hotel is next to the headquarters of the local paramilitary force. Ninety minutes later there was a second explosion in the same market area of the town. Officials say this blast was caused by fire in an arms and ammunition shop, local officials say.

Four paramilitary soldiers and a journalist have gone missing in South Waziristan in recent days. The bodies of two of the soldiers have now been found. One report said they had been beheaded, another that their throats had been cut.

South and North Waziristan have been at the centre of prolonged confrontations between the army and militant groups. Hundreds of militants and more than 25 Pakistani soldiers have died in the tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan in the past two years.

North Waziristan saw a further development this week when 15 people were killed in clashes that started after bandits tried extorting money from Islamic students at a roadblock.

The students, backed by local tribesmen sympathetic to the Taleban, set fire to the gangsters' homes. They then hung the bodies of at least three of the bandits from electricity poles. Residents said the fighting was so fierce the authorities did not intervene.

Pakistan has sent thousands of soldiers to hunt down the militants as part of the US-led war on terror. Last week the Pakistanis authorities said a leading al-Qaeda member, Abu Hamza Rabia, was killed in an explosion in North Waziristan.

Terror war strategy goes beyond Iraq and Afghanistan - by Donna Miles December 8, 2005 American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON - The threat that led to the global war on terror began festering long before Sept. 11, 2001, and will continue to rage as long as al Qaeda and other like organizations keep spreading their ideology, Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, from U.S. Central Command, said.

Kimmitt, CENTCOM's deputy director for plans and strategy, said the terrorist threat extends well beyond Iraq and Afghanistan. "And that problem set does not go away if we were victorious tomorrow in either Iraq or Afghanistan," he said Nov. 28 at the Heritage Foundation here.

A large network of terrorist organizations is working toward similar ideological goals, he said. "And it's not simply al Qaeda," Kimmitt said. "It's other groups with names such a Jamaah Islamiyah, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. There is a large network of these organizations virtually connected in some cases, physically connected in others."

All share an ideology that wants to turn the clock back 15 centuries and create a global caliphate, he said. "That is clearly the intention of al Qaeda and its associated movements," Kimmitt said. "It has been said time after time after time."

Military operations alone won't defeat that ideology, Kimmitt acknowledged. It requires broad-based efforts within the U.S. government and those of other nations, as well as a long-term military response.

CENTCOM's strategy to confront this threat "is for a long war" that focuses beyond what Kimmitt called "the narrow lens of Iraq and Afghanistan."

The plan calls for a smaller U.S. footprint in the region and ongoing cooperation with coalition partners committed to fighting terrorism, he said.

The current U.S. force posture in the region "is just too large, and it can't sustain itself over time," Kimmitt said. "So as we talk about the long war, we talk about re-posturing ourselves to a smaller, more expeditionary, more capable force, but one that is drawn from sanctuary to the region as and when needed," he said.

While moving toward this concept, the U.S. military must continue to work with its coalition partners to help them help themselves, he said. "Our partners need to be at the lead of this fight," Kimmitt said, noting that most understand the challenges ahead and are taking action against terrorists.

Kimmitt cited Jordan's King Abdullah as an example of a partner who is standing up to those challenges. Other examples can be seen in Kuwait and Egypt, he said. "So as we continue to help our partners help themselves, we believe that this is one of the fundamental strategies going forward," he said.

[Disclaimer: The content of this news bulletin does not necessarily reflect the view or policy of the Afghan Government, unless specifically stated as such. The collection of articles and commentaries from Afghan and international news sources is provided for informational purposes, and accuracy of the news is the responsibility of the original source.]