thedrifter
10-27-08, 08:05 AM
Gen.: Bad press from Afghanistan overblown
By Jason Straziuso - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Oct 27, 2008 8:41:56 EDT
KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO’s top commander in Afghanistan is tired of negative headlines, and he is on an offensive to counter what he sees as a wave of unwarranted pessimism in news reports coming out of the country.
Army Gen. David McKiernan’s public relations push comes at a time when more U.S. and NATO troops have died than in any other year since the 2001 U.S. invasion, in part because Taliban militants are launching increasingly complex and deadly attacks.
“There’s a lot of negative reporting. Somebody likes to report an attack somewhere and that becomes the trend in Afghanistan, or they don’t report the positive events or the absolute brutality or the illegitimacy of the Taliban,” McKiernan said in an interview Sunday.
McKiernan highlighted an event last week witnessed by NATO troops in Farah province in which insurgents planting a roadside bomb grabbed two children and used them as human shields when they were attacked by NATO forces.
The four-star general also pointed to a protest last week by about 1,000 Afghans in Laghman province over the slaying of 26 local workers by Taliban militants who stopped a bus in Kandahar and killed many onboard.
“That’s a rejection of the brutality of the Taliban by the people of Afghanistan, and that needs to be heard,” McKiernan said in the interview Sunday. “What happens sometimes in reporting is that there’s this idea that the Taliban is at the gates of Kabul, or after [the June prison break], they’re about ready to take control of Kandahar, or they’re resurgent in Uruzgan or Helmand, and it’s just not true,” he said.
McKiernan, who took command of the NATO mission in Afghanistan in June, has acknowledged that the country lacks security and governance in many regions but concluded in a news conference to weeks ago that “we are not losing Afghanistan.”
McKiernan wants at least three more brigades of U.S. troops next year and more of “just about everything,” to include transport aircraft and spy planes. He says he needs more troops not to defeat the Taliban but to help the Afghan government stand on its feet in areas it currently barely exists.
Ellie
By Jason Straziuso - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Oct 27, 2008 8:41:56 EDT
KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO’s top commander in Afghanistan is tired of negative headlines, and he is on an offensive to counter what he sees as a wave of unwarranted pessimism in news reports coming out of the country.
Army Gen. David McKiernan’s public relations push comes at a time when more U.S. and NATO troops have died than in any other year since the 2001 U.S. invasion, in part because Taliban militants are launching increasingly complex and deadly attacks.
“There’s a lot of negative reporting. Somebody likes to report an attack somewhere and that becomes the trend in Afghanistan, or they don’t report the positive events or the absolute brutality or the illegitimacy of the Taliban,” McKiernan said in an interview Sunday.
McKiernan highlighted an event last week witnessed by NATO troops in Farah province in which insurgents planting a roadside bomb grabbed two children and used them as human shields when they were attacked by NATO forces.
The four-star general also pointed to a protest last week by about 1,000 Afghans in Laghman province over the slaying of 26 local workers by Taliban militants who stopped a bus in Kandahar and killed many onboard.
“That’s a rejection of the brutality of the Taliban by the people of Afghanistan, and that needs to be heard,” McKiernan said in the interview Sunday. “What happens sometimes in reporting is that there’s this idea that the Taliban is at the gates of Kabul, or after [the June prison break], they’re about ready to take control of Kandahar, or they’re resurgent in Uruzgan or Helmand, and it’s just not true,” he said.
McKiernan, who took command of the NATO mission in Afghanistan in June, has acknowledged that the country lacks security and governance in many regions but concluded in a news conference to weeks ago that “we are not losing Afghanistan.”
McKiernan wants at least three more brigades of U.S. troops next year and more of “just about everything,” to include transport aircraft and spy planes. He says he needs more troops not to defeat the Taliban but to help the Afghan government stand on its feet in areas it currently barely exists.
Ellie