Petraeus troubled by rising Afghan violence - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Petraeus troubled by rising Afghan violence

FORT BENNING, Ga. – Gen. David Petraeus told infantrymen here Tuesday that the rising violence in Afghanistan is “very concerning,” echoing the top U.S. and NATO commander’s sobering assessment of the war-torn country.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s anticipated assessment of the security situation in Afghanistan surfaced Monday in media reports, warning the eight-year mission could end in failure if the U.S. military doesn’t commit more forces to quell Taliban violence.

Petraeus, commander of U.S. Central Command, told an audience at the 2009 Infantry Warfighting Conference here that the 60 percent increase in violence in Afghanistan over the last year “reflects the resilience and the growth of the Taliban,” believed to be fueled by illegal narcotics money and other criminal activities.

However, Petraeus cautioned the importance of keeping the scale of violence in perspective, comparing it to the level of fighting in Iraq in 2006.

“That is not to say in any way that the violence is not very, very significant … [but] it is a heck of a lot less than the height of violence in Iraq,” he said.

Petraeus did not talk about plans for additional forces to Afghanistan, but he acknowledged the “deterioration in the security situation, and we have to reverse that.”