Mullen: U.S. has to gain trust of Afghans

[unhappycamper]

Mullen: U.S. has to gain trust of Afghans
By Jesse J. Holland - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Feb 14, 2009 13:45:45 EST

As the Obama administration considers a troop buildup in Afghanistan, the top American military officer says the war will be lost if the U.S. can’t find a way to protect the Afghan people and gain their trust.

“We can send more troops. We can kill or capture all the Taliban and al-Qaida leaders we can find — and we should. We can clear out havens and shut down the narcotics trade. But until we prove capable, with the help of our allies and Afghan partners, of safeguarding the population, we will never know a peaceful, prosperous Afghanistan,” the Joint Chiefs chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen, wrote in a newspaper column.

Mullen also said that U.S. forces have to gain the trust of the people in Afghanistan. The insurgency won’t ever end if U.S. forces accidentally kill civilians in the country or give people reasons to think badly of the United States, according to Mullen’s column posted on The Washington Post’s Web site Saturday and set to be published Sunday.

“That’s why images of prisoner maltreatment at Abu Ghraib still serve as recruiting tools for al-Qaida,” Mullen said. “And it’s why each civilian casualty for which we are even remotely responsible sets back our efforts to gain the confidence of the Afghan people months, if not years.”

The Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq has come to symbolize American abuse of some prisoners captured in Iraq, after the release of photos showing U.S. soldiers sexually humiliating inmates at the facility. The scandal stoked support for the insurgency and was one of the biggest setbacks to the U.S. military effort to win the peace in Iraq.


Rest of article at: http://armytimes.com/news/2009/02/ap_mullen_afghanistan_021409/%2e