Troop Cuts in Afghanistan Concern General

[Rose Siding]

ORGUN, Afghanistan -- A senior U.S. general warned against cutting American force strength in Afghanistan, saying Friday that insurgents remain a grave threat and neither Afghan nor NATO forces are ready to fill the breach.

Maj. Gen. Eric Olson told The Associated Press he was concerned that policy-makers will seize on a recent drop in Taliban and al-Qaida attacks to cut the 17,000-strong U.S. force here to ease the pressure on American forces stretched by their deployment in Iraq.

"If there is no real spring offensive (by the Taliban), I think there may be pressure on the international community to draw down force levels and I think that would be a big mistake," said Olson, the No. 2 U.S. commander in Afghanistan.

"I think there's still an insurgency to win here, and I think the Afghan central government is at this point very much dependent on the support of the coalition," he said.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-afghan-us-general,0,2489678.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[LynnTheDem]

1. 4 years later and the "greatest super-power" still hasn't won Afghanistan.

Bet the Russians are pissing themselves laughing.

[FloridaPat]

2. We weren't even trying. Right after that invasion Pravda had an

article that said the US didn't go in there with enough troops to take the entire country. All we took - and probably all we wanted - was the capital and the future pipeline route.