Washington, Oct 7 (ANI): US and NATO forces are barely over half-way towards reaching their goals after ten years in Afghanistan, retired Army General Stanley McChrystal has said. Operation Enduring Freedom" was aimed at tracking down Osama Bin Laden after 9/11 and eliminating the Taliban.
The UN says that over 10,000 Afghan civilians have died because of the fighting in the past five years alone. Reports suggest that over 2,500 international troops have been killed, most of them American.
The conflict has already surpassed Vietnam to become the longest war in US history.
Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations, Gen McChrystal, who commanded coalition forces in 2009-10 before being forced to resign after a magazine interview, said the most difficult task would be to create a legitimate government that ordinary Afghans could believe in and that would balance the influence of the Taliban.
"We didn't know enough and we still don't know enough. Most of us - me included - had a very superficial understanding of the situation and history, and we had a frighteningly simplistic view of recent history, the last 50 years," The BBC quoted him, as saying.
He added that while the choice to engage in Afghanistan may have been understood, the decision to invade Iraq had been seen as illegitimate by many in the Muslim world and had diverted some military resources that could have been put to good use in Afghanistan, the report said.
Western officials have reportedly admitted that parts of the country will remain violent after 2014 when NATO relinquishes its combat role.
Without a peace deal with the Taliban few really expect the war to be brought to an end, McChrystal added. (ANI)
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