Afghan progress like 'watching grass grow': Petraeus

Wednesday, September 15, 2010
WASHINGTON (AFP) - – The top NATO commander in Afghanistan said that progress in the war was slow in coming, sometimes as slow as "watching grass grow or paint dry."
US General David Petraeus told ABC News that American and coalition troops are nevertheless making headway with "hard fought gains" against insurgents but that it remained tough going.
Recounting his impressions from a battlefield tour, Petraeus said the fight was "very difficult and sometimes -- seeming to be as slow as, again, watching grass grow or paint dry. But nonetheless -- progress."
Asked where US-led forces had reversed the Taliban's momentum, Petraeus said that coalition troops had seized the initiative in the center of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan.
"I think there's no question that in Helmand Province, the six central districts of Helmand Province -- are a good bit more secure than they were even six months ago," he said in the television interview.
He also insisted that coalition efforts in Marjah -- the site of a major US-led offensive in February -- were paying off, despite persistent violence and setbacks.
A high school had opened in Marjah for the first time in six years, an interim police station was operating and drug dealers allied with insurgents no longer sold opium in the local market, he said.
The insurgency could no longer rely on Marjah as its "major command and control headquarters" in the province, he said.
In a separate interview with National Public Radio, Petraeus struck a similarly cautious tone, saying operations in the strategic Kandahar province would take time to bear fruit and the effort had to be "Afghan-led."
He said coalition forces were about to launch "more nuanced" operations around Kandahar to win back areas that "were never cleared" of insurgents, according to excerpts of the NPR interview.
The general, credited in Washington with salvaging the US mission in Iraq, acknowledged that the Afghan government's police were often unpopular among the local population.
"There is truth, in fact, to the fact that the police in particular have image problems that are based on reality," he said.
Petraeus also said a Florida pastor's threat to burn Korans had done damage to US interests in the country even though the church minister did not go ahead with his plan.
He expressed regret at the effect of the heavily-publicized threat from the Dove World Outreach evangelical church to torch hundreds of Korans to mark the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
"There has been some damage done," Petraeus said.
"You've seen it. You've seen, you've heard of the demonstrations here in Afghanistan -- there are already in a sense images, if you will, implanted in minds albeit not with photos of something as inflammatory as the burning of a Koran," Petraeus said.
The general spoke out forcefully against the pastor's plans last week, warning that burning Korans would jeopardize coalition troops in Afghanistan.
The church's Pastor Terry Jones abandoned the plan after pleas from US President Barack Obama, the Vatican and other world leaders.