The situation in Afghanistan is dire, and progress will demand a substantial and sustained commitment, military leaders told Congress Wednesday, as they laid out more details of the Obama administration''s new strategy for the war.
But skeptical members of the Senate Armed Services committee pressed the defense officials about the pace of U.S. troops deploying to the war, and why there are no clear benchmarks on which to gauge whether the new strategy is working.
"How will we know if we''re winning?" asked Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. "We should not be committing additional troops before we have a means of measuring whether this strategy is successful."
Michele Flournoy, under secretary of defense for policy, said the administration is working on finalizing a set of benchmarks, but moved quickly to send some additional troops to the war because of the urgent need to reverse momentum gained by insurgents.
She and Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, also urged senators to support funding to train Pakistani forces to fight militants. And they painted a somewhat pessimistic picture, saying that building the Afghan security forces and bolstering the Pakistani military to fight insurgents on their side of the border will take more time and money.
Defense leaders did not detail what the budget request would be, but said a key element will be the fund to train Pakistani forces in counterinsurgency operations that would target al-Qaida safe havens along the ungoverned Afghan border.
During the hearing on President Barack Obama''s new strategy expanding the Afghan campaign, senators also questioned how willing the Pakistani government is to take on that fight against the extremists who use the border as a staging area for attacks.
Islamic banking and finance is emerging in CIS member nations
Emomali Rahmon holds meeting with Tajiks living in Italy
Deputy head of Shahritous district detained on suspicion of bribery
Precious metals and gems account for 48.5% of Tajikistan’s total exports in Q1 this year
Tourism Development Committee releases the 2nd report on the risk of plague; this time, it says the risk is minimal
Eight members of Tajik opposition group detained in Rome
Tajikistan-Italy investment forum result sin signing of contracts worth more than US$160 million
Emomali Rahmon meets with WeBuild Group CEO in Rome to discuss the progress of construction of Roghun HPP
The population of Central Asia expected to exceed 1000 million by 2050
Tajikistan authorities warn about the risk of appearance of the plague in the country
All news
Авторизуйтесь, пожалуйста