Gen. Petraeus Predicts Worsening Violence in Afghanistan War
posted by Josiah Garber on April 23, 2009
in Politics
US Central Command head General David Petraeus said today that he believes that the situation in Afghanistan is “going to get worse before it gets better.”
“When you go into the enemy’s sanctuaries, they will fight you for it. There will be tough months ahead, without question,” Petraeus conceded while defending the 20,000 plus additional US troops being sent to Afghanistan as part of the Obama Administration’s planned escalation.
Gen. Petraeus is just the latest in a growing chorus of US military officials who, while cheering on the so-called “surge” into Afghanistan, have expressed a belief that it will make violence even worse than the record levels seen in 2008. Last week, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Michael Mullen said he too expected violence to escalate as the US adds more troops.
Though violence generally does not peak until the summer, this winter’s violence has already been considerably higher than normal. US officials have attempted to pass this off as a result of “really good weather,” yet if worsening violence is already a trend and they anticipate adding more soldiers will make it even worse, the situation in 2009 should be tumultuous, to say the least.
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