British Lt. Gen. J.B. Dutton, the deputy commander for the International Security Assistance Force, speaks to Troop B, 1st Squadron, 40th Cavalry regiment during a visit on Thursday to Combat Outpost Deysie. (James Warden / Stars and Stripes)
PAKTIA PROVINCE, Afghanistan — NATO’s second in command, Lt. Gen. J.B. Dutton, is optimistic that 2009 will be a good year for Afghanistan, despite what he says is some critics’ portrayal of the country as one in the middle of a "spiral to disorder."
"We see it here in a rather more positive light than some of our Western press does," said Dutton, deputy commander for the International Security Assistance Force, the NATO command in Afghanistan.
Dutton made the remarks Thursday to soldiers from Troop B, 1st Squadron, 40th Cavalry Regiment, when he stopped to visit Combat Outpost Deysie while flying through rural Paktia province.
Dutton first noted the growing strength of Afghan security forces. The Afghan National Army has become a good organization, he said. The National Police is not as good, but a strong minister of the interior offers hope for the future.
"Not surprisingly, armies are better at building armies than police forces, but we get around to it in the end," he said.
Heavy voter registration in advance of this year’s election suggests that the citizens themselves are ready for democracy, he said.
By many measures, however, the war in Afghanistan has gone poorly in recent years. Both civilian and military casualties are at all-time highs, and commanders have acknowledged a stalemate with the Taliban in many parts of the country.
But Dutton said he believes developments outside Afghanistan bode well for the country. Pakistan has accepted that it has an insurgency problem and moved toward solving it — a reference to the recent heavy fighting between Pakistani forces and Taliban fighters. The U.N. mission in Afghanistan has also got a new shot of life. It has a larger budget and more support from its headquarters in New York.
But Dutton said the biggest help will come from the extra 21,000 troops that the United States is sending to the country. The American shift in focus from Iraq to Afghanistan should be able to break the stalemate in Afghanistan’s southern provinces.
"As we all know, when the focus of U.S. attention shifts, lots of things happen," he said.
Dutton said that improving Afghanistan would require hard work, but he stressed that his optimism is a realistic expectation for Afghanistan.
"I think it’s the perception that’s the problem, not the reality," he said.
