Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Afghanistan on Tuesday, where he is trying to get a handle on how the war is going ahead of a release later this month of an annual review of the Obama administration's strategy.
Gates spent the day in the eastern part of the country, where some of the fighting has been the worst. He visited Forward Operating Base Joyce, a remote post in Afghanistan's Kunar province, one of three border-coordination centers where Afghan, Pakistani and U.S. troops are trying to secure the border to make sure that insurgents cannot cross into Pakistan to use that territory as a safe haven.
This year we saw something a little bit more challenging.
The safe havens in Pakistan have been a central problem in the eastern part of Afghanistan. The war here is complicated by a porous border that allows insurgents to flee into Pakistan, regroup and come back into Afghanistan to wage attacks.
Gates heard from the troops how the safe havens have triggered more violence in Kunar province.
"This year we saw something a little bit more challenging. And by that I mean that, come June, we had a 200 percent increase in attacks as compared to the same year 2009 and 2008," said Lt. Col. J.B. Vowell.
Vowell says part of the reason violence is up is because the Pakistani military on the other side of the border has pressured insurgents, and they're being pushed over into Afghanistan where U.S. and Afghan troops engage them.
Some military officials refer to it as "stirring up the hornet's nest." Gates told U.S. soldiers in Kunar that it is working.
"We are breaking the momentum of the enemy, and we will reverse that momentum, and we can all go home," he said. "It will be awhile and we'll suffer tougher losses as we go."
The risk was demonstrated in late November when six U.S. soldiers were shot and killed by an Afghan border police officer during a training mission. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the infiltrator and his attack.
"The people don't want us up there, but they don't want the Taliban either. They want to be left alone," said Maj. Gen. John Campbell, the U.S. commander in charge of 14 provinces in the eastern part of Afghanistan.
"So we've got to set the conditions at some point to be able to bring our forces out of there and be able to reposition them to bigger population areas," he said.
Part of the Obama administration's review of the war strategy will look at how resources are allocated -- where do U.S. troops help and where is their presence counterproductive?
"You really have to take it a district at a time -- and maybe even more local areas than that -- and diversify your strategy depending on the local conditions, in terms of whether presence contributes to security or detracts from security. And that may differ from one valley to the next," Gates said.
Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said the Taliban still have areas where they can operate freely, but there have also been U.S. gains.
"The progress of recent months in particular has been important, because it has demonstrated that we could indeed take away very important areas, areas that mean a great deal to the Taliban," Petraeus said.
During his visit with the troops, Gates awarded Silver Star medals to six soldiers at Forward Operating Base Joyce.
In his remarks to all the troops, he delivered an unusually personal message as the administration tries to figure out if the current strategy these troops are using is the right one.
"I feel a sense of personal responsibility for each and every one of you, since I sent you here. And I feel the sacrifice and the hardship and the losses more than you'll ever imagine," he said. "So I just want to thank you and tell you how much I love you guys."
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