Senior US commander in Afghanistan reveals his pessimism

The new US general responsible for the mission in Afghanistan gave this week a surprisingly candid talk about the situation in the country.

In his first interview since taking command of NATO's Resolute Support mission in September, Army General Austin Miller's thoughts seem to reflect the pessimism felt by the American people as the war in Afghanistan crosses the bar. 17 years.

"It will not be won militarily," Miller told NBC News in an exclusive interview. "It's going to a political solution."

"In my opinion, the Taliban are also realizing that they can not win militarily," he said. "So, if you realize that you can not win militarily at any given time, fight is fair, people start asking why, so you do not necessarily expect us, but I think it's time to start working. on the political side of this conflict. "

Miller's comments reflect several realities described in the latest report of the US government's lead agency on Afghanistan.

In July, the Afghan government controlled or influenced only 55.5 percent of the country's 407 districts.

This is the lowest level since the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan's Reconstruction, SIGAR, began monitoring district controls in November 2015, according to the group's quarterly report released on Thursday.

Although the exact numbers are classified, the Resolute Support Service also reported that the average number of victims of Afghan government forces from May to October 2018 was the highest ever recorded in similar periods.

May is the most active month with 26% of victims in this five-month period. About 52% of the victims during this period occurred during checkpoint operations, while 35% occurred during patrols.

SIGAR reported that the number of casualties at checkpoints was increasing, while the number of casualties in patrols was decreasing.

The good news is that the Afghan government's control over the total population in the country remains unchanged from this period last year to 65%.

According to SIGAR, about 12% of Afghan districts are under the control or influence of insurgents.

About 32.4% of Afghan districts are disputed, which means they are neither controlled by the Afghan government nor by the insurgency.

Since SIGAR began receiving district control data in November 2015, the control and influence of the Afghan government over its districts has been reduced by about 16%. contested districts increased by about 11%; and the control or influence of insurgents increased by 5.5%.

"The control of Afghanistan's districts, population and territory has become increasingly contentious in this quarter: the Afghan government and insurgency have lost districts and lands under their control or influence", wrote SIGAR officials.

When Miller took control of the war in early September, Afghan soldiers had already been killed and wounded to record numbers.

Miller told NBC News that he had started his term by proposing a more aggressive policy of helping the Afghan army locate and defeat Taliban fighters. But in this new interview, Miller also acknowledged that Afghanistan needed a political and not a military solution to its problems.

Miller also narrowly escaped the Taliban's unhurt attack on Oct. 18 in Kandahar during a meeting with the governor of Kandahar. The Taliban managed to overthrow one of the governor's bodyguards, who then launched an internal attack at the end of the meeting.

Kandahar police chief, General Abdul Raziq, chief of Kandahar police and head of the US-backed Afghan war in the southern region of the country, was killed during the attack. Raziq was arguably the largest energy broker in the region.

Brig. General Jeffrey Smiley, an American general in charge of Resolute Support's advisory mission in southern Afghanistan, and another unidentified civilian were also wounded in the attack.

Afghanistan's summer fighting season was also marked by a notable loss of Afghan Elite Commando units, which were routed to defend the city of Ghazni, less than 160 kilometers from the Afghan capital Kabul, following the Taliban offensive in August.

Although the commandos eventually rallied to retake the city with the help of US Special Operations Forces, the fact that such an elite unit was invaded and suffered a high number of casualties could indicate fatigue and excessive use of his troops.

The cumulative funds allocated to reconstruction and related activities in Afghanistan since the 2002 fiscal year amount to about $ 132 billion, according to SIGAR.