Man on a mission: US defence secretary Robert Gates is still hungry for the fight in Afghanistan

[unhappycamper]

Robert Gates at the Howz-e-Madad base during his six-day tour


Man on a mission: US defence secretary Robert Gates is still hungry for the fight in Afghanistan
By Toby Harnden 5:20PM GMT 11 Dec 2010

As his Black Hawk helicopter headed to Forward Operating Base Joyce, Robert Gates, the Pentagon chief, was able to look down on the Hindu Kush mountains, a route for invaders and sanctuary for warlike tribesmen back to Alexander the Great.

Places like FOB Joyce, deep in Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan, underline the reason why Mr Gates is pressing President Barack Obama for more time to wage a war that has already lasted longer than the period of American involvement in both world wars.

Treading a careful line between highlighting the "tough fight" being waged by American-led coalition forces and trumpeting his new conviction that "our strategy is working", Mr Gates appears poised to prevail when the White House finalises its Afghanistan review this week.

After meeting Mr Gates in Kabul, General David Petraeus, commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan and the man who oversaw victory in Iraq, said the surge had "arrested the momentum of the Taliban" in much of Afghanistan but the enemy still enjoyed freedom of movement in many areas.

The review comes a year after Mr Obama's West Point speech that ordered a surge of 30,000 US troops, bringing America's total force to 100,000, compared to just 20,000 at the start of 2009. It is likely to conclude that slow but steady progress is being made and now is not the time to change course.

[KG]

1. in spite of mounting evidence to the contrary, these fools are convinced there's something to be won

[Bobbieo]

2. Gates can't bear the thought of anyone else getting their greedy hands on

Afghanistan's mineral wealth.

[malaise]

3. Well he can explain the fight to the families of

the six NATO military men who were killed overnight.