Posted on: Saturday, February 26, 2005
U.S. presence called critical in Afghanistan
By Stephen Graham
Associated Press
ORGUN, Afghanistan — Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents remain a grave threat to Afghani-stan, a senior U.S. general said yesterday, warning against cutting the strength of the U.S.-led coalition so long as neither Afghan nor NATO forces are ready to fill the breach.
Tomas Munita • Associated Press "The U.S. presence at the core of the coalition has been critical to success of the overall coalition effort," said Olson, who commands the 25th Infantry Division (Light) in Hawai'i and is the No. 2 U.S. commander in Afghanistan.
Schofield Barracks' 3rd Brigade Combat Team and 1,000 Kane'ohe Bay Marines with the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment make up more than 6,500 Hawai'i-based troops serving in Afghanistan.
About 1,000 coalition troops are non-Americans, including a contingent of Egyptian medics, teams of French and Norwegian special forces, and a Romanian battalion in the southern city of Kandahar.
Olson said the operation is very taxing and there will be pressure to draw down forces while handing over more responsibility to what is now a 9,000-strong NATO security force.
"My fear is that will happen too fast, that the drawdown will outrun the expansion or the compensation of NATO expansion," Olson said.
"I think there's still an insurgency to win here, and I think the Afghan central government is at this point very much dependent on the support of the coalition."
Olson spoke to a reporter after visiting troops at three remote bases near the mountainous Pakistani border, where militants continue to undermine security.
Under Olson, who leaves Afghanistan next month, U.S. troops have set up several small bases across the country's south and east to back up officials from U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai's government and to intercept militants crossing from Pakistan.
An A-10 ground attack aircraft from Bagram Air Base, north of the capital, circled high over the snowcapped mountains surrounding one base as Olson handed out awards, including Bronze Stars, to troops from Hawai'i.
NATO plans to expand into western Afghanistan this year, then to the south, but the general said he was not convinced the alliance would match the numbers or capabilities of the U.S. units they eventually should replace.
He also said Afghanistan's new army and police would need five to 10 years before they could begin performing properly.
Olson reiterated that the trail of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden had "gone cold," but he said U.S. forces were continuing their search.
"There are no specific leads to bin Laden right now, but we collectively are just as determined to continue to hunt him," he said.
Olson also praised Pakistan for a bloody crackdown on militants, including suspected al-Qaida fighters on their side of the border, but said they had "by no means" finished off forces with ambitions to retake Afghanistan.
Maj. Gen. Eric Olson said he was concerned that American policy-makers will seize on an apparent drop in militant attacks to cut the 18,000-strong coalition — about 17,000 of whom are Americans — to ease the pressure on American forces stretched by their deployment in Iraq.
U.S. Maj. Gen. Eric Olson awards soldiers based near the Pakistan border. Olson warned against cutting American troop strength in Afghanistan, saying that insurgents remain a grave threat.
