Senate confirmation appeared assured for General David Petraeus, who became one of the U.S. military’s biggest stars after helping turn around the war in Iraq.
President Barack Obama fired the previous commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, last week after he and his aides were quoted disparaging the president and other top civilian advisers in an article in Rolling Stones magazine. The president named Petraeus to take over the war effort in Afghanistan.
The war in Afghanistan, launched after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, has become unpopular with the U.S. public, but Petraeus used Tuesday’s confirmation hearing to play down any quick turnaround hopes.
He acknowledged limitations in training Afghan forces and in building up local governance in the face of what he called an “industrial strength insurgency.”
“My sense is that the tough fighting will continue; indeed, it may get more intense in the next few months,” Petraeus said in prepared remarks to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“As we take away the enemy’s safe havens and reduce the enemy’s freedom of action, the insurgents will fight back.”
Petraeus called the security situation “tenuous” and said the Taliban insurgency remained resilient and confident it could outlast the United States and its allies.
In his prepared testimony, Petraeus said he would review how the war was being waged, including rules of engagement that some say put U.S. troops at unnecessary risk in an effort to protect Afghan civilians, a potentially controversial move.
“I am keenly aware of concerns by some of our troopers on the ground about the application of our rules of engagement and the tactical directive. They should know that I will look very hard at this issue,” Petraeus said.
But Petraeus made clear he supported Obama’s underlying war strategy, including the goal of beginning a transition of authority to Afghan security forces and a gradual troop drawdown in July 2011.
Petraeus stressed that any troop drawdown would be based on security conditions on the ground and limited to the 30,000 “surge” forces which Obama agreed to send in December as part of a revised strategy that put a focus on securing population centers, chief among them the Taliban birthplace of Kandahar.
Petraeus acknowledged the “hugely challenging” task of building up Afghan security forces to take over for U.S. and NATO troops.
“Helping to train and equip host nation forces in the midst of an insurgency is akin to building an advanced aircraft while it is in flight, while it is being designed, and while it is being shot at. There is nothing easy about it,” he said.
(Editing by David Alexander and Frances Kerry)
