[PJ] WASHINGTON - Gen. David Petraeus, former CIA director and former commander of U.S. Central Command, said the situation in Afghanistan is "deteriorating" and encouraged the next administration to make an "enduring commitment" to security in the country.
"The situation as we describe is fraught and it is concerning, and the bottom line is we believe the next administration should make an enduring commitment to Afghanistan and our partners there -- that is the real bottom line and, if you will, the headline -- that we should not have to go through the annual reviews to see where you are and how you are going to draw down or what have you, that we should use the assets we have there as effectively as we possibly can to support our Afghan security force counterparts," Petraeus said during a discussion on Afghanistan security last week at the Brookings Institution.
"As many of you know, our air power was restricted for quite some time. We think it warrants further examination to determine how we can indeed help individuals for whom we provided close air support when we were fighting shoulder to shoulder with them and then we did not do that for some period of time until more recently. Those are the kinds of initiatives that should be pursued," he added.
Petraeus said U.S. involvement within Afghanistan, which began after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and surged during President Obama’s first term, is not a blank check and has to be a commitment from both sides.
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