Panetta Discusses Operations in Afghanistan

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By Jim GaramoneAmerican Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON – Most Afghan and NATO troopsare now conducting normal partnered operations, Defense Secretary Leon E.Panetta announced during a news conference here today.
Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen, the topU.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, had ordered that all combinedoperations below the battalion level be approved by regional commandersfollowing attacks by Afghan soldiers and police that have killed 51 members ofthe coalition this year.
However, Afghan and coalition troops arenow back to conducting partnered operations as before, Panetta told Pentagonreporters. The military believes some of the insider attacks were perhapstriggered by Muslim anger over an American-made internet video that defamed theProphet Muhammad.
“I can now report to you that most ISAFunits have returned to their normal partnered operations at all levels,” saidPanetta, who was accompanied by Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of theJoint Chiefs of Staff.
Dempsey, just back from a visit toAfghanistan, said partnering efforts are back to the level they were before thedifficulties. Around 90 percent of all operations in the country are partnered.
Even with the insider attacks, Panettasaid the coalition and Afghan efforts are paying off. He said the Taliban werein control of large swaths of Afghanistan and were poised to take more when thecoalition surge into the country began in December 2009.
Last week, the secretary announced theend of the surge, with the departure of the last of the 33,000 troops who wereordered deployed. There are now 68,000 American service members in Afghanistan.
“[The surge] accomplished the primaryobjectives of reversing the Taliban’s momentum on the battlefield anddramatically increased the size and capability of the Afghan national securityforces,” Panetta said.
This will continue, said Dempsey, notingcoalition troops will continue to partner with Afghan soldiers and police. TheTaliban has failed to recover momentum or any territory. “Our Afghan partnersare working with us to shut down the threat of insider attacks,” the chairmansaid. “As one Afghan army commander told me, insider attacks are an affront totheir honor, at odds with their culture and their faith.”
Taliban insurgents are actively tryingto infiltrate Afghan army and police formations, Dempsey said. The insurgentgroup is also trying to turn Afghan soldiers and police against their coalitionallies.
Dempsey said coalition forces areadapting to the Taliban’s change in tactics.
“That’s what professional militariesdo,” he said. “And we are doing it in a way that ensures we continue to be ableto partner.”
The Taliban wants to break thecoalition, the general said, but the coalition’s resolve to stand with Afghanformations is strong.
Still, it will be tough going in thecountry, Panetta said. “The enemy we are dealing with … is adaptive andresilient,” the secretary said. “Their focus has shifted to carrying outhigh-profile attacks in order to undermine the new sense of security that hasbeen felt by ordinary Afghans.”
Panetta expects there will be morehigh-profile attacks like the one that struck Camp Bastion last week.
“The enemy will do whatever they can totry and break our will using this kind of tactic. That will not happen,” hesaid.
Afghan forces are the “defeat mechanism”of the insurgency, Panetta said.
“We have an enduring commitment to anAfghanistan that can secure and govern itself and that is never again a safehaven from which terrorists can attack us,” he said. “Our men and women inuniform, our fighting forces, ISAF, Afghanistan fighting forces I think havesent a strong message to the Taliban that time is not on their side.”