WASHINGTON — Allied military commanders in Afghanistan have told a senior U.S. envoy that they need more troops to deal with an intensifying insurgency in the country's east, raising the possibility that the Obama administration may refocus the war on the lawless border with Pakistan.
Any request to increase overall troop levels could face resistance from Congress, coming at a time when U.S. support for the war appears to be softening. A Washington Post-ABC poll released last week showed that a slight majority of Americans now believe the war is not worth fighting.
Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefsof Staff, noted the diminishing support for the war. He refused to say whether additional troops would be required but described Afghanistan as "serious and deteriorating."
"Afghanistan is very vulnerable in terms of Taliban and extremists taking over again, and I don't think that threat's going to go away," he said.
Mullen, a Vietnam veteran, said he's aware that public support for the war is critical. "Certainly the numbers are of concern," he said. But, he added, "this is the war we're in.
"I recognize that we've been there over eight years," he said. "But this is the first time we've really resourced a strategy on both the civilian and military sides. So in certain ways, we'restarting anew.
"We're just getting the pieces in place from the president's new strategy on the ground now," he said. "I don't see this as a mission of endless drift. I think we know what to do."
While American attention has focused primarily on the fight in southern Afghanistan, many senior U.S. military officials have considered that they need to step up the fight against Jalaluddin Haqqani and other insurgent leaders in mountainous eastern Afghanistan. Theybelieve that a greater U.S. push there, combined with pressure from Pakistani troops on the other side of the border, could grind down the insurgent groups.
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, commander of forces in the east, told reporters traveling with U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke on Sunday that Haqqani "is the central threat" in the east and that "he's expanded that reach."
NATO commanders said Haqqani, who formerly centered his attacks on Afghanistan's Khowst province, had been advancing farther afield, including as far south as southern Paktika province.
Some military officials believe Haqqani has suffered setbacks because of Pakistani army pressure and is vulnerable.
"In the east, we have an opportunity," said an adviser to the U.S. command. "The Pakistanis have done damage to the Haqqani network."
VULNERABLE TO EXTREMISTS
Mullen on Sunday described the situation in Afghanistan as "serious and deteriorating," but refused to say whether additional forces would be needed.
"Afghanistan is very vulnerable in terms of [the] Taliban and extremists taking over again, and I don't think that threat's going to go away," he said.
Mullen also expressed concern about diminishing support among a war-weary American public as the U.S. and NATO enter their ninth year of combat and reconstruction operations.
But military officials privately believe Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the current NATO and U.S. commander, may ask for as many as 20,000 additional forces to get an increasingly difficult security situation in Afghanistan under control. And one leading Republican is already saying McChrystal will be pressured to ask for fewertroops than he requires.
"I think there are great pressures on Gen. McChrystal to reduce those estimates," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. "I don't think it's necessarily from the president. I think it's from the people around him and others that I think don't want to see a significant increase in our troops' presence there."
McCain said McChrystal should specify how many troops he needs, Congress should debate it and the president should make the final decision.
Asked whether the U.S. has enough troops in Afghanistan, McCain responded: "We don't." McChrystal should "decide on exactly the number he needs" instead of delivering more general recommendations based on risk, McCain said on ABC television's This Week program.
The U.S. needs to "clear and hold and secure an environment for people so that political and economic progress can be made," said McCain, the Republican presidential candidate who ran against President Barack Obama last year.
DEPLOYMENTS ALREADY HIGH
Obama already has committed 21,000 additional U.S. troops to the campaign in Afghanistan, bringing the American force to 68,000 by year's end. About 30,000 international troops under NATO command also are deployed in Afghanistan.
U.S. forces are suffering their highest single-year death toll of the eight-year campaign, with 166 killed so far this year, according to the independent Web site icasualties.org.
The potential of stepped-up military activity in the east comes as Afghanistan awaits the results Thursday's presidential and provincial elections, with the possibility of a runoff race for president.
Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr., D-Pa., visiting Afghanistan, said he told Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who is seeking re-election, in a meeting Sunday "that there's going to come a time when the patience of Americans is going to run out."
Holbrooke, who is the senior U.S. representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, met with NATO commanders in all four of the NATO regional organizations over the weekend.
Holbrooke has brought a new emphasis on the struggle against the insurgent groups in Pakistani mountain strongholds, believing that while the U.S. military contingent in Pakistan is dwarfed by the number in Afghanistan, Pakistan is a top strategic interest for the United States. Pakistan, which has its own nuclear arsenal, is struggling to maintain its stability against a variety of insurgent groups, along with other crises.
There is no way to forecast how many troops the administration might add to the eastern region, but the addition of one brigade, or about 3,500 troops, would be a substantial increase. U.S. forces now have two Army brigades in the zone, plus some other personnel.
Under the last NATO and U.S. commander, Gen. David McKiernan, the U.S. added an additional brigade in eastern Afghanistan and leadership was satisfied that their troop levels were satisfactory.
McChrystal has questioned whether the fight in the south was as important to overall strategy as previously thought. He has suggested, however, that more troops could be helpful in Kandahar, home turf of the Taliban.
Mullen appeared on NBC's Meet the Press and CNN's State of the Union. McCain's interview with ABC's This Week was taped Friday and aired Sunday.
Information for this article was contributed by Paul Richter and Julian E. Barns of the Los Angeles Times, by Richard Lardner of The Associated Press and by Justin Blum of Bloomberg News.
Front Section, Pages 1, 2 on 08/24/2009