WASHINGTON — In an unusual public criticism, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he believes NATO forces currently deployed in southern Afghanistan do not know how to combat a guerrilla insurgency, a deficiency that could be contributing to the rising violence in the fight against the Taliban.
“I’m worried we’re deploying (military advisers) that are not properly trained, and I’m worried we have some military forces that don’t know how to do counterinsurgency operations,” Gates said in an interview.
Gates’ criticism comes as the Bush administration has decided to send 3,200 U.S. Marines to southern Afghanistan on a temporary mission to help quell the rising number of attacks. It also comes amid growing friction among allied commanders over the Afghan security situation.
But coming from an administration castigated for its conduct of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, such U.S. criticism of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is controversial. Many NATO officials blame inadequate U.S. troop numbers earlier in the war in part for a Taliban resurgence.
“It’s been very, very difficult to apply the classic counterinsurgency doctrine because you’ve had to stabilize the situation sufficiently to start even applying it,” said one European NATO official who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak for the alliance.
