Petraeus says Afghan war at critical stage

General David Petraeus warned on Sunday that the west was facing a “critical moment” in Afghanistan as he assumed command of a 130,000-strong force suffering record casualties in its escalating war with the Taliban.

The US general faces the task of proving that President Barack Obama’s decision to nearly triple American troop numbers can salvage the war in spite of mounting insurgent violence and growing disenchantment with the conflict among Nato allies.

“We are in this to win,” Gen Petraeus told western and Afghan officials gathered at a change-of-command ceremony at the Kabul headquarters of Isaf, the Nato-led force in Afghanistan. “We have arrived at a critical moment.”

Gen Petraeus takes over the force with only six months to demonstrate the US surge in Afghanistan is making progress ahead of a strategy review planned by the White House in December. Mr Obama has said American troops will start to withdraw in a year’s time, but the insurgency appears stronger than at any point since the US invasion in 2001.

In Washington, top Republican senators used Gen Petraeus’ swearing-in to speak out against Mr Obama’s withdrawal plan.

John McCain, the former Republican presidential candidate, said that having a “date certain” for starting to withdraw troops from Afghanistan “sounds an uncertain trumpet”.

“I’m all for dates of withdrawal, but that’s after the strategy succeeds, not before. That’s a dramatic difference,” Mr McCain told ABC news from Kabul, adding that the date would allow the Taliban and al-Qaeda to wait out the US troops.

“I know enough about warfare,” said Mr McCain, a Vietnam veteran. “I know enough about what strategy and tactics are about. If you tell the enemy that you’re leaving on a date certain, unequivocally, then that enemy will wait until you leave.”

His concerns were echoed by Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a moderate Republican and former air force officer, who said that setting a deadline could lead to “confusion and uncertainty”.

“Gen Petraeus needs this monkey off his back,” Mr Graham said.

“In my view, if people think we’re going to leave, we have no chance of winning,” Mr Graham told CBS, adding that the deadline had “hurt our friends and emboldened our enemies”.

“If you overemphasise a deadline that is not realistic, you’re making the enemy a lot more bold, you’re prolonging the war,” Said Tayeb Jawad, the Afghan ambassador in Washington, told CNN. “That deadline should be based on the reality on the ground. We should give a clear message to the enemy, to the terrorists who are threat to everyone, that the United States, NATO and Afghans are there to finish this job.”

Gen Petraeus takes over from General Stanley McChrystal, who was forced to resign last month after he and his aides were quoted in a Rolling Stone article making disparaging remarks about Obama administration officials.

Gen Petraeus, who oversaw the war in Afghanistan as head of US Central Command, paid tribute to his predecessor and said he would retain his focus on protecting the population and avoiding civilian casualties. However, Gen Petraeus said he would examine civilian and military policies to determine where “refinements might be needed”.

The remarks suggest he might adjust some of the restrictions on the use of force imposed by Gen McChrystal under his strategy to try to bolster popular support for international forces and the government of President Hamid Karzai.

Gen McChrystal’s limitations on the use of air power and artillery succeeded in reducing the level of civilian casualties inflicted by his troops, but sometimes proved unpopular among soldiers who felt they handed advantages to insurgents.

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Gen Petraeus noted that last month was the bloodiest of the war for the Nato-led force, which lost 102 troops, more than half of them Americans.

“As you and our Afghan partners on the ground get into tough situations, we must employ all assets to ensure your safety, keeping in mind, again, the importance of avoiding civilian casualties,” he said.

The general has earned a reputation in Washington for saving the US war effort in Iraq by overseeing a troop surge in 2007, although experts debate the extent to which his strategy was responsible for the ensuing reduction in violence.

Among his biggest challenges in Afghanistan will be resolving the tension between a US strategy based on rallying the population behind the Afghan state and concerns that Mr Karzai’s administration is incapable of delivering reforms needed to win greater support.

The Obama administration has also yet to persuade Pakistan to make a potentially decisive contribution by cracking down on safe havens used by Afghan insurgents linked to its powerful security establishment.

Gen Petraeus re-iterated the US justification for its Afghan campaign, saying the country should never again be allowed to become a haven for al Qaeda, the Islamist terror network, or allied groups planning attacks abroad.