General Petraeus Told He 'Must Succeed' In Afghanistan

General David Petraeus [left] with George Bush in the Oval Office of the White House September 17th
Photo: GETTY

From The Telegraph:

General David Petraeus must "knit together" Afghanistan's confused command structure if the coalition is to avoid a humiliating defeat, a senior American defence official has said.

The man behind the "surge" strategy in Iraq will take charge of US Central Command tasked with bringing fresh direction to an Afghan campaign that was seen as "marking time".

But he will face a tough battle to bring unity to the 40 nations and 53,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan that come under several different chiefs.

In a downbeat assessment of the current state of the campaign in Afghanistan, the officer said there was "100 per cent chance of success if we do it the right way but if we do it the wrong way there is a zero per cent chance".

He admitted that it was unlikely other nations such as Germany would get more involved in the fighting in southern Afghanistan.

He also warned that like the British Army, the American military was suffering from the effects of continual operations over seven years. "At some point we have to refit, rest our force and retrain them before we redeploy them."

Gen Petraeus will look to unite commanders in Afghanistan and Iraq for "unity of purpose" so there could be "unity of effort," the military official told defence correspondents in London.

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My Comment: I do not envy General Petraeus's job. My gut tells me that Afghanistan with its border sanctuaries will be a force that will be difficult to defeat.