General says U.S. preparing for longer stay in Afghanistan

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/
chi-0611150085nov15,1,1130173.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

Chicago Tribune
November 15, 2006

General says U.S. preparing for longer stay in
Afghanistan
By James Janega

"We're looking at these as enduring bases. If we
pulled out of Afghanistan and Iraq, we're still going
to need some bases there to do our . . . mission in
that area."

The U.S. military is preparing for a longer commitment
in Afghanistan, a general with U.S. Central Command
said Tuesday in Chicago, while stopping short of
saying there is a political commitment to do so.

Earlier, Army Maj. Gen. Michael Diamond, deputy
director for logistics at CENTCOM, said the arrest of
an insurgent lieutenant in Afghanistan early this
month would force combatants there to switch tactics.

Diamond made the comments at the Union League Club, 65
W. Jackson Blvd., before and during a luncheon meeting
of the Rotary Club of Chicago.

Long-term preparations are topped by an upgraded
airfield at the Bagram military base near the Afghan
capital. It already has been used to resupply NATO
forces but is not scheduled to be fully operational
until January, he said.

The U.S. previously entered into an agreement with
Afghan President Hamid Karzai to establish a long-term
presence on military bases but pointedly has not
called them permanent.

"We're looking at these as `enduring bases,'" Diamond
said. "If we pulled out of Afghanistan and Iraq, we're
still going to need some bases there to do our . . .
mission in that area."

In early October, military control in the last of
Afghanistan's eastern provinces bordering Pakistan was
turned over to NATO's International Security
Assistance Force.

Most of the rest of the country already was under NATO
oversight, except for small pockets in the north and
west guarded by Afghan army and police forces.

Progress in the country has been threatened by a
burgeoning, yearlong insurgency....

Diamond told the Rotary Club that progress had been
made in Iraq and Afghanistan, while whirring through
slides that showed the extent of loosely allied
terrorist cells in an Islamic world teeming with young
people and low employment.

Weak points in U.S. strategy to address budding
terrorists included suspected recruitment on the
Internet, among other area media. The U.S. believes
there will be a need to be in Iraq and Afghanistan for
the foreseeable future, he said.

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