WASHINGTON — Even with American troops headed soon from an increasingly quiet Iraq to a more turbulent Afghanistan, defeating extremists in Afghanistan is growing more complex and more urgent, President Bush’s senior defense advisers say.
“Frankly, we are running out of time,” Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, referring to the international effort to stabilize Afghanistan.
“I’m not convinced we’re winning in Afghanistan,” said Mullen, adding quickly, “I’m convinced we can.”
What is needed, he said, is better Afghan governance, more foreign investment, a viable alternative to poppy farming, greater cooperation with Pakistan and more U.S. nonmilitary assistance.
Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, testifying together one day after Bush announced that one Marine battalion and one Army brigade would be shifted from Iraq to Afghanistan this fall and winter, both stressed the futility of relying too much on military power in Afghanistan.
“We cannot kill our way to victory,” Mullen said.
U.S. commanders in Afghanistan say they need another 10,000 troops — about three times as many as they will receive this winter under the troop deployment Bush announced. The commanders also urge more nonmilitary aid and say the Afghan government must perform better.
Gates said the insurgency in Afghanistan has gained “greater ambition, sophistication and coordination” since 2006, and he underlined the importance of denying them haven in neighboring Pakistan.
“As in Iraq, until the insurgency is deprived of safe havens, insecurity and violence will persist,” Gates said.
In Iraq late Wednesday, two bombs exploded an hour apart in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, killing at least two people and wounding 15 others, including women and children, police and hospital officials said.
The first blast occurred about 800 yards from the shrine of Imam Hussein, one of the world’s most sacred shrines for Shiite Muslims, the officials said. The second bomb went off about an hour later outside the office of a government agency that cares for Shiite religious sites near another shrine, for Imam Abbas. Both shrines draw hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from across the Shiite world. Blasts near them are uncommon because of the stringent security there.
No group claimed responsibility for the blasts, and police would not speculate on who might be responsible.
