Afghanistan -- A Comprehensive Political, Economic, And Military Campaign Is Now Being Discussed

Petraeus: More Than Troops Needed In Afghanistan
-- Yahoo News/AP

BAGHDAD - U.S. Gen. David Petraeus said Sunday that experience in Iraq shows it will take political and economic progress as well as military action to tackle increased violence in Afghanistan.

"You don't kill or capture your way out of an industrial strength insurgency," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

His comments come as a debate over the need to redeploy troops from Iraq to Afghanistan has become a central issue in the U.S. presidential campaign.

Petraeus, who is widely credited with pulling Iraq back from the brink of civil war, is taking over as chief of U.S. Central Command, the headquarters overseeing U.S. military involvement throughout the Middle East, as well as Afghanistan and the rest of Central Asia.

He'll hand over the reins in Iraq to Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno Tuesday during a ceremony at the U.S. military headquarters at Camp Victory on the western outskirts of Baghdad.

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My Comment: Stating the obvious. But will he have the resources and the political will to proceed in accomplishing the same level of success in Afghanistan as he has had in Iraq .... this is something that we will have to wait and see.