The general who commands NATO forces in Afghanistan has called for enlisting tribes to help pacify the country and did not rule out reconciliation with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar. General David McKiernan, the commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), also said that the coalition needs more troops for what he said is an increasingly "tough fight" in eastern and southern Afghanistan. "And until we get to what I call a tipping point where the lead for security can be in the hands of the Afghan Army and the Afghan police, there is going to be a need for the international community to provide military capabilities," he told reporters on Wednesday.McKiernan has asked for four more US combat brigades, support forces, helicopters and reconnaissance, intelligence and surveillance capabilities. He said that any reconciliation efforts should be led by the Afghan government, but that the military would support it.
Asked whether dealing with the man who harbored Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was beyond the pale, McKiernan said: "I think that's a political decision that will ultimately be made by political leadership."
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday that he has asked Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to arrange talks with the Taliban so that Omar and other militia leaders could return home in peace. "Ultimately, the solution in Afghanistan is going to be a political solution not a military solution," said McKiernan, who spoke to reporters at a Pentagon news conference. "We're not going to run out of bad guys there that want to do bad things in Afghanistan," he said. "So the idea that the government of Afghanistan will take on the idea of reconciliation, I think, is [an] approach and we'll be there to provide support within our mandate," he said.
The general's visit to Washington comes as the administration of US President George W. Bush is conducting a wide-ranging strategy review prompted by rising insurgent violence in Afghanistan, allegedly fueled from sanctuaries in Pakistan.
The Afghan National Army is supposed to double in size to 134,000 troops in four years, but McKiernan said he did not know how long it would take to reach a point where international forces can start withdrawing.
Drawing on the US experience in Iraq, however, McKiernan suggested that a rebalancing of power between the central government and the tribes could help provide security at a local level. "And it seems to me that with the lead of the government of Afghanistan engaging those tribes and connecting them to governance, whether it's at the provincial level or the district level, seems to be a smart thing," he said.