Gates: U.S. reviewing its Afghanistan war strategy

LONDON – In an echo of a time when things were going from bad to worse in Iraq, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday the Bush administration is reviewing its war strategy in Afghanistan amid spreading insurgent violence, rising U.S. and allied military deaths and doubts about winning.

With only a few months left before President Bush leaves office, the administration apparently is attempting to draw a clearer picture for the next commander-in-chief of what needs to be done to stabilize the country, to sustain and increase international support and to make the most of U.S. and allied military forces.

Any changes in strategy now being contemplated would not be as substantial as Bush’s decision in January 2007 to take a fundamentally different approach in Iraq, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said. Bush added that more than 21,000 combat troops in Iraq and endorsed an overhaul of military strategy.

“Nothing of that magnitude” is being considered for the war in Afghanistan, Morrell cautioned.

Bush launched the war in Afghanistan in October 2001 in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, by al-Qaida, the extremist network that enjoyed protection there by the country’s Taliban rulers. Al-Qaida has since been mostly removed from Afghanistan but remains in sanctuaries in parts of Pakistan. Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader, remains at large and is thought to be hiding in Pakistan.

Gates did not say the current U.S. approach in Afghanistan is failing, nor did he explicitly call for a change of direction. He alluded, instead, to the 2007 makeover of U.S. strategy in Iraq and suggested in an interview with a group of reporters that the administration is reconsidering fundamental aspects of its strategy.

“We are looking at it, and I guess that is as far as I would go” in explaining the process, he said.

“You have an overall approach, an overall strategy, but you adjust it continually based on the circumstances that you find,” Gates said. “We did that in Iraq. We made a change in strategy in Iraq and we are going to continue to look at the situation in Afghanistan.”

Gates visited Afghanistan on Wednesday and flew to London for NATO consultations beginning Thursday evening. Afghanistan is not intended to be a major topic for the meeting; the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force is the lead command element in Afghanistan, headed by a U.S. general.

Gates did not reveal whether the White House has launched a formal across-the-board reassessment of its war strategy. But his remarks indicated that the administration sees a need to make some further adjustments.

He said the United States and its NATO partners face “a different kind of challenge” in Afghanistan than just two years ago, when it appeared that the insurgency in the eastern region, which borders Pakistan, was under control. Attacks in that region, as well as in southern Afghanistan, have since risen sharply.