Berlin: Stressing that the new strategy
of the US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan is showing results,
top American commander Gen Stanley McCrystal has sought to
shore up public support for Germany`s highly unpopular
military mission in that country.
The new strategy of showing stronger military
presence, especially in populated areas, in partnership with
the Afghan security forces, is very crucial for winning the
hearts and minds of the Afghan people, Gen McCrystal said
after talks with German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu
Guttenberg here.
However, this strategy, which the International
Security Assistance Force has been pursuing in Afghanistan
since early this year, also involves great risks, as the death
of seven German soldiers in attacks by the Taliban in northern
Afghanistan earlier this month shows, Gen McCrystal said.
German public support for the Afghanistan engagement
dropped sharply since four soldiers were killed in an attack
on their convoy by the Taliban during a joint patrol with
Afghan security forces in Baghlan last Thursday and three
soldiers died in an attack on a similar patrol in Kundus two
weeks earlier.
Latest opinion polls showed that more than 60 per cent
of the German public want the country`s soldiers to be pulled
out immediately.
Gen McCrystal said in a German television interview
that the battle against the insurgents can be won only if the
people of Afghanistan are firmly behind the government and the
security forces.
There will be less attacks if the people support the
government and the security forces and the Taliban will have
difficulties to get new recruits, he said.
But it also meant that the international forces will
have to take into account certain risks in the short term.
To go out in the populated areas and to seek contacts
with the public always involved risks.
"It must be clear to everybody concerned that the most
effective protection for the Afghan people and the security
forces is to get the Afghan public fully behind them," he said.
The governments involved in the NATO-led mission
should make it clear to their people that this kind of
operation involved risks all over Afghanistan.
"We must accept these risks. At the same time, we must
do everything possible to protect our forces while fulfilling
our mission effectively," he said.
Gen McCrystal lobbed the engagement of the German
forces in Afghanistan and said his decision to put a
contingent of 2,500 American troops under the German command
in northern Afghanistan "is a testimony to the full
confidence" in their leadership.
PTI
