US success in Afghanistan 'will not be quick'

A U.S. general warned that military success in Afghanistan is likely to be slower than in Iraq after the surge of troops there. Testifying before Congress, General David Petraeus said, as in Iraq, the situation in Afghanistan was "likely to get harder before it gets easier." General Petraeus spoke a week after President Barack Obama has ordered 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. The general said he supported the announced increase in strength. General Petraeus, who oversaw the troop buildup in Iraq in 2007, said "while certainly different, and in some ways more difficult than Iraq, Afghanistan is nothing more disheartening than Iraq was "when there has assumed command in February of this year. He said success in Afghanistan is achievable, but warned that "... progress will be difficult and progress will likely be slower than what was in the development of progress in Iraq. " Nests 'Hornet' Addressing the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate, the General has urged legislators to "reject judge the success or failure of strategy in Afghanistan until next December.
The policies of President Obama, he said, "will be over the next 18 months we can achieve significant progress" in Afghanistan. General Petraeus said the new strategy would help to "set conditions" for an eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in mid-2011. The additional forces will be deployed in Afghanistan as quickly as possible, bringing the military of the United States there are over 100,000 people. BBC North America Editor Mark Mardell says, it is clear from the questions they want to hear senators that the Pakistani military is committed to addressing all of what they call extremist groups along the border and see that as crucial to success in Afghanistan. Asked about the risk of pushing the militants over the border with Pakistan, General Petraeus said he hoped to coordinate with Pakistani forces as they waited for "a catcher's glove or the anvil", but it would take time. "They say that you can paste as many sticks in the nests of hornets so many 'once, and they have a very impressive military and a core of increasingly impressive border, but again there are limits ability and the challenge to work with. " "Vital interests" In his comments to the commission, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, said the decision of President Obama "offers the best way to stabilize Afghanistan and to ensure al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups can not take up to plan new attacks against our country or our allies. " The United States, he warned, "do not heal completely [Afghans'] causes of problems, but we can help them along a path to normalcy and stability that is essential to protect our own vital interests. " Afghan Ambassador Eikenberry said, "must be convinced that the United States is a trusted friend on whom they can count on, after our combat forces to begin coming home." But he warned that the U.S. was unlikely to achieve its objectives unless more progress was made in "removing the sanctuaries used by the Afghan Taliban and their allies, extremist militants in Pakistan."