NATO general: Negative Afghan headlines overblown

[October 27, 2008]  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- NATO's top commander in Afghanistan is tired of negative headlines, and he is on an offensive to counter what he sees as a wave of unwarranted pessimism in news reports coming out of the country.

U.S. Gen. David McKiernan's public relations push comes at a time when more U.S. and NATO troops have died than in any other year since the 2001 U.S. invasion, in part because Taliban militants are launching increasingly complex and deadly attacks.

"There's a lot of negative reporting. Somebody likes to report an attack somewhere and that becomes the trend in Afghanistan, or they don't report the positive events or the absolute brutality or the illegitimacy of the Taliban," McKiernan told The Associated Press in an interview Sunday.

McKiernan highlighted an event last week witnessed by NATO troops in Farah province in which insurgents planting a roadside bomb grabbed two children and used them as human shields when they were attacked by NATO forces.

The four-star general also pointed to a protest last week by about 1,000 Afghans in Laghman province over the slaying of 26 local workers by Taliban militants who stopped a bus in Kandahar and killed many on board.

"That's a rejection of the brutality of the Taliban by the people of Afghanistan, and that needs to be heard," McKiernan said in the interview Sunday.

"What happens sometimes in reporting is that there's this idea that the Taliban is at the gates of Kabul, or after Sarposa (a massive June prison break) they're about ready to take control of Kandahar, or they're resurgent in Uruzgan or Helmand, and it's just not true," he said.

McKiernan, who took command of the NATO mission in Afghanistan in June, has acknowledged that the country lacks security and governance in many regions but concluded in a news conference to weeks ago that "We are not losing Afghanistan."

Militants in July killed nine U.S. troops in Kunar province in a massive attack that almost overran a small, newly built U.S. outpost. In August some 100 insurgents attacked French troops outside Kabul and killed 10. The same day six suicide bombers tried to storm a U.S. base near the border with Pakistan.

In June, Taliban militants stormed Kandahar's Sarposa Prison in a complex attack kicked off by a massive truck bomb. Some 900 inmates were freed, including 400 Taliban fighters.

The killings of three foreigners in Kabul, the capital, in the last week have added to the stream of negative headlines.

Last month in Washington, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned the House Armed Services Committee that the U.S. is "running out of time" in Afghanistan. "I'm not convinced we're winning in Afghanistan," said Mullen, adding quickly, "I'm convinced we can."

McKiernan is trying to underscore that last point. He wants at least three more brigades of U.S. troops next year and more of "just about everything," to include transport aircraft and spy planes. He says he needs more troops not to defeat the Taliban but to help the Afghan government stand on its feet in areas it currently barely exists.

[Associated Press; By JASON STRAZIUSO]

Associated Press reporter Fisnik Abrashi contributed to this report.

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