NATO official: More Afghan training needed for war

[September 29, 2009]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- NATO's secretary general on Monday said "things are going to have to change" in Afghanistan for the United States and its international allies to win the stalemated war.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, stopped short of calling for more combat troops to be sent to Afghanistan, as the Obama administration currently is debating.

Instead, he said a far stronger focus needs to be put on preparing Afghan military and civilian forces to take the lead in securing and building their nation. But Rasmussen also voiced doubts that the U.S. and NATO will be successful in preventing the Taliban and other extremists from again making Afghanistan a haven for terrorists.

"Despite everything that we have already done, reaching our goal in Afghanistan is not guaranteed," Rasmussen told a standing room-only audience at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank. "We cannot simply continue doing exactly what we are doing now. Things are going to have to change."

Rasmussen meets Tuesday with President Barack Obama. He said he generally agreed with an on-the-ground assessment by the U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, that, among other things, calls for more combat troops.

Speaking with reporters after his speech, Rasmussen clarified that he was only referring to McChrystal's views on training Afghan forces and helping stabilize Afghanistan's government. He said it is "premature" to discuss whether more combat troops should be sent to Afghanistan, although he said he wants more international training forces to go.

At a secret meeting Friday in Germany, a senior military official said, McChrystal hand-delivered copies of his troop request document to Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, U.S. Central Commander David Petraeus and NATO Supreme Allied Commander Adm. James Stavridis. In turn, Mullen delivered a copy of the request, which is believed to ask for as many as 40,000 U.S. troops, to Gates over the weekend, said the military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.

Rasmussen did not answer when asked Monday if he had seen the troop request.

The Obama administration is torn between ramping up its military strength in Afghanistan or turning to a new strategy of rooting out al-Qaida in Pakistan, mostly with unmanned spy planes and special forces units. The White House is not expected to consider McChrystal's troop request for at least two weeks until it decides what strategy to pursue, the military official said.

Mullen and Petraeus will be part of a top-level White House meeting Wednesday with Obama that also will include Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and National Security Adviser James Jones.

Noting dwindling public support for the war, Rasmussen said he wants NATO to forge a new contract with Afghanistan that promises aid only if the Kabul-based government curbs corruption and delivers basic services to the Afghan people. He called on the United Nations and other international groups to work more closely with Kabul, in part to help certify the results of the Aug. 20 elections.

The elections were marred by claims of ballot stuffing and voter coercion and officials are now recounting a sample of 10 percent of ballot boxes from 3,063 polling stations with suspect results. Preliminary results show Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai winning with 54.6 percent of the vote. But if enough ballots are found to be fraudulent, Karzai could dip below the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff with chief challenger Abdullah Abdullah.

If a runoff is needed, it will have to take place in the last two weeks in October, before winter snows make much of the north impassable. Missing that window could delay any runoff until spring, creating a power vacuum in a country already struggling to fend off the resurgent Taliban and losing support from international allies.

Rasmussen said the election results could be certified by early October. Ultimately, he said, "we should let the Afghans decide whether they consider the elections to be credible or not."

Still, Rasmussen warned, "we need a credible and legitimate Afghan government. And we need to hold the Afghan government accountable to international obligations and to legitimate expectations from the Afghan people."

In New York, Clinton said Karzai's government must earn the trust of the Afghan people by addressing the claims of serious fraud.

In a meeting with Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, Clinton said a credible investigation into those allegations was critical to the legitimacy of the current administration and whatever government emerges, according to a senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private diplomatic exchange.

[Associated Press; By LARA JAKES and MATTHEW LEE]

Lee reported from New York. AP White House Correspondent Jennifer Loven contributed to this report.

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