'Tough year' ahead in Afghanistan: US general

[David]

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Even with an additional 17,000 troops in Afghanistan, the top US commander there predicted "a tough year" in 2009 and warned that the situation would not be quickly turned around.

General David McKiernan, who commands US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, spoke a day after President Barack Obama approved the deployment in the coming months of two additional combat brigades and support forces, about 17,000 troops in all.

"Even with these additional forces, I have to tell you, 2009 is going to be a tough year," McKiernan told reporters at the Pentagon.

"There are the baseline problems of poverty, and literacy, and violence that have occurred over the last three decades in that country, so that's not going to turn around quickly," he said.

"But we do see, with these additional forces, an opportunity to break this stalemate, at least in terms of security conditions in the south," he said.

McKiernan had requested up to 30,000 additional troops, which would nearly double the size of a US force that has grown to 38,000 troops.

The additional troops would be in place and operational by the height of the fighting season this summer and before Afghanistan's national elections August 20, he said.

The general said most of the additional forces would be used in the south, an area where security has deteriorated and where more forces are needed to wage an effective counter-insurgency campaign.

He said they would be used "to shape, clear, hold, and build in support of rapidly developing Afghan capacity."

"I've always said that this will not be a military outcome. This will eventually be a political outcome. It will be decided by people that live in Afghanistan," McKiernan said.

"And so developing governance at all levels and socioeconomic programs are certainly very, very critical to this," he said.