The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
March 21, 2012

Afghan War General: No Immediate Decision on Troop Reductions 
--------------------------------------------------------------



The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan says he will not be recommending
any further reductions of U.S. troops until later this year after the
November elections. Speaking before the House Armed Services Committee,
General John Allen also confirmed the NATO occupation has lost 13
soldiers to attacks from Afghan forces so far this year.

Gen. John Allen: "Just since the 1st of January, the coalition has lost
60 brave troops in action, from six different nations. Thirteen of them
were killed at the hands of what appeared to have been Afghan security
forces, some of whom were motivated, we believe, in part by the
mishandling of religious materials. I wish I could tell you that this
war was simple and that progress could easily be measured. But that is
not the way of counter-insurgencies. They are fraught with both success
and set-backs which can exist both in the same space and in the same
time. But each must be seen in the overall context of the larger
campaign and I believe the campaign is on track."



.