Defense Secretary Robert Gates (Jason Reed/AP)
KABUL — Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who had been visiting troops throughout Afghanistan, told a roomful of journalists at a Thursday evening press conference here that whatever an investigation into the Farah province deaths turned up, the U.S. works hard to avoid killing innocent civilians.
Since the beginning of the year, Gates said, civilian casualties were down 40 percent, while military and security forces casualties were up 70 percent. "So I do believe we’re doing everything we can to avoid civilian casualties," he said.
"At the end of the day, this is a war on the ground — village by village, block by block," he said. "I think civilian casualties in Afghanistan, however they occur, pose a risk to our efforts here. What is critical … is that the Afghan people believe that we are on their side … that we are here to protect them and not to hurt them."
Gates declined to discuss any investigation findings, but said he had heard the reports of the Taliban tossing grenades into houses to kill people and then blaming it on the United States.
"We all know the Taliban use civilian casualties and sometimes create them," he said.
And despite the tactical advantage airstrikes give the U.S., Gates said that modern weaponry can also create difficulties.
Gates said rules of engagement had been tightened since he last visited Afghanistan some months ago, but that the U.S. military still had to find ways to mitigate civilian casualties, however they occurred.
"It doesn’t matter that it’s part of the Taliban strategy," he said. "What matters is the view of the Afghan people."
Although most of the questions had to do with the civilian casualties, Gates was also asked whether the U.S. had plans to deal with the Pakistani Taliban, who had recently taken control of terrority 60 miles from the capital, Islamabad, a troubling development in a nuclear-armed nation.
Gates said he believed the Taliban there had "overreached."
"I think it has served as an alarm to the Pakistan government," he said. "So we’ve seen significant Pakistani action against the Taliban," he said. "I think there is very little chance of the Taliban in Pakistan achieving the level of success that would enable them access to nuclear weapons. I do not anticipate at all that there will be American troops going into Pakistan from Afghanistan."
In his opening remarks, Gates said that his battlefield tour convinced him that U.S. and coalition troops are doing "an extraordinary job in dangerous circumstances." He said he’d emphasized to the troops "the importance of showing respect and courtesy … to be a true partner."
"We are entering a critical period," he said, with an influx of some 21,000 U.S. troops and more from other nations in anticipation of the August presidential election, and that the U.S. goal was for Afghanistan "not to become a haven for terrorists or return to the brutal rule of the Taliban."
