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Analyst: Gates Surprise Afghan Visit Prelude to Next Phase in War

   Victor Beattie | Washington 08 March 2010
   US  Secretary of Defense Robert Gates speaks during a press conference
   with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, 8 March 2010

Photo: AP

   US  Secretary  of  Defense  Robert  Gates, left, speaks during a press
   conference with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai at The Presidential
   Palace in Kabul on Monday March 8, 2010.

   U.S.  Defense Secretary Robert Gates' surprise visit to Afghanistan is
   not  a  surprise  to  national  security  columnist and editor of `The
   Washington  Times'  Bill  Gertz. `It appears to be coinciding with the
   completion  of  the first phase of a new stability operation, first in
   Marjah, now they're focusing on Kandahar,' Gertz told VOA. `I think he
   (Gates)  wanted  to get an on-the-ground assessment of how things were
   going,  and  that's  why  he  flew  there  to  meet the troops and the
   commander, (U.S. Army) General Stanley McChrystal.'
   Fighting is intensifying, according to Gertz, even though he says only
   about  6,000  of the expected 30,000 additional U.S. troops being sent
   to Afghanistan have arrived. `And, then they're planning sometime this
   summer to move on to Kandahar which is really, both symbolic and real,
   a Taliban stronghold in the country,' said Gertz.
   The  newspaper  columnist and editor says he expects U.S. officials to
   get a better sense of the security challenges they face in Afghanistan
   prior  to  another anticipated U.S. strategy review expected at year's
   end.  `No  one  has  any  illusions,'  said Gertz. `Counter-insurgency
   warfare  is the most difficult type of warfare and Gates was signaling
   that today (Monday) when he said there are still hard days ahead.'

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