The top U.S. general in Afghanistan on Tuesday belittled the Taliban’s much-ballyhooed spring onslaught, saying the only offensive he has seen is NATO’s. The Examiner reported earlier Tuesday that the Taliban’s annual spring offensive, stymied by NATO preemptive strikes, had proven less effective than its 2006 surge.
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McNeill’s comments supported that assertion.
“There’s been a lot of talk about a Taliban spring offensive,” Army Lt. Gen. Dan McNeill, commander of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, told reporters at the Pentagon via a video tele-conference.
“I’m not certain it’s what I would judge an offensive” he said. “What I judge to be the offensive is what NATO is doing and has been doing since the first of March.”
Then, Taliban insurgents retook villages in the south near Kandahar. Their victories prompted the United States to call for more allied troops and to launch a counter-offensive during the summer to take back territory.
This year, the command struck first with a force which now exceeds 35,000 troops.
“We made a decision early on that we would be out prosecuting our strategy, not waiting for the insurgents to prosecute his,” McNeill said. “We felt fairly certain that because of the capability of our force that we would have the upper hand, at least as it comes to maneuvering and shooting on the battlefield.”
His said the Taliban, like its al Qaeda allies in Iraq, is turning to suicide bombers and roadside bombs – so-called asymmetrical tactics meant to inflict casualties where conventional warfare cannot.
Still, the Taliban, which a U.S.-led invasion ousted from power in December 2001, is not defeated. It could have as many as 20,000 fighters and finds sanctuary in neighboring Pakistan to regroup.
“I think there’s ample evidence that they continue to grow,” McNeill said.
The NATO-trained Afghan army is due to reach 70,000 soldiers next year.
