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2-star sees slow win in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON — U.S.-led forces are achieving a “slow win” in Afghanistan, but the less-than-decisive approach must be accelerated soon, a key American commander there said Friday.

Army Maj. Gen. Jeffrey J. Schloesser, in a videoteleconference with reporters at the Pentagon, said he remains hopeful that the Bush administration will send him more combat troops and other resources by winter.

He mentioned that Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said the U.S. effort in Afghanistan is by necessity an “economy of force” mission, meaning it is under-resourced because the war in Iraq is considered a higher and more urgent national security priority.

“We need to get away from that, over time,” to make a stronger push in Afghanistan, Schloesser said.

The current approach, he said, is producing progress but not at a rate that he considers satisfactory.

“It’s not the way that I think ... the Afghans, the international community and the American people would like to see us conduct this war,” Schloesser said. “It will take longer the way we are doing it right now, as far as the level of resources that we have. I’d like to speed that up. So it’s a slow win. I’d want to make it into a solid, strong win” by committing more resources.

There are now about 33,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, compared with about 146,000 in Iraq.

Schloesser, commander of the 101st Airborne Division, leads a contingent of international forces responsible for an eastern sector of Afghanistan, which includes a volatile area bordering Pakistan.