A resurgent Taliban? No, who could have guessed? Talk of cutting US troop deployments in Afghanistan during his previous visit? Guess what...not going to happen any time soon. The UK is sending more troops to Afghanistan and Bush is pleading with Italy to maintain their presence. I say we blame it on the Afghanistan government who has been forgotten and under-funded by the US because they really should have been able to rebuild without problem after years of civil war. Just look at how easy it is in Iraq.
Eikenberry said the Taliban are operating in areas where a weak government has created a security vacuum."It's not a question of the enemy being strong," he added. "It's very much a question in many instances of the institutions of the state of Afghanistan still moving slowly to stand up in governance and Afghan national security forces. But we very much have the momentum."
In later remarks in the interview, Eikenberry said the Taliban has been able to assert itself, particularly in the south."The Taliban is more organized than they were last year and they have more fighters in certain areas," he said.
Eikenberry would not discuss any plans to increase or decrease U.S. troop levels, which now stand at about 23,000. Last December, on his most recent previous visit to Kabul, Rumsfeld announced that U.S. troop levels would drop from 19,000 at that time to 16,000 by this summer.
In remarks to reporters in Tajikistan before flying here, Rumsfeld welcomed an expanded role by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Afghanistan, but also expressed worry that drug trafficking is helping bankroll the Taliban.
