Round-up of today's AfPak news.
Has Karzai lost faith in the US's fight against the Taliban? Amrullah Saleh, the former head of Afghanistan's intelligence agency who was recently forced out by President Karzai, believes that the Afghan leader has lost faith in the US's ability to defeat the Taliban and is now looking to Pakistan to help fight the insurgency, according to a report in the Guardian. The report is based on conversations with those close to Saleh. According to one aide who spoke with the paper, Karzai at some point lost confidence in the coalition's ability to keep the country safe. [Guardian]
Gates: Progress in Afghanistan must come this year. Ahead of a meeting with NATO defense ministers, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters that if NATO does not "make some headway" in Afghanistan by the end of 2010, it will lose considerable public support. Gates has set similar deadlines in the past, saying last August that progress would need to come by the end of 2009. Gates added that General Stanley McChrystal is "pretty confident" U.S. forces will show progress in the next seven months, and that he plans to give Afghan forces full responsibility for security in some areas of the country by as soon as this winter. [AP]
Kandahar commanders say they won't repeat Marjah mistakes. Instead of attacking the Taliban, Washington plans to use thousands of new American troops in Kandahar to provide security for a "civilian surge" in the region. They hope new aid programs administered by Afghans, like a $90 million initiative to subsidize seeds and tools for Afghan farmers, will show Afghans their government can provide useful local services. This approach is the opposite of that tried in the region of Marjah earlier this year, where a massive military offensive alienated civilians and failed to defeat Taliban forces. [NYT]
Moscow, Washington spar over Afghan opium trade. After a UN report revealed that the number of deaths caused by Afghan heroin exceeds the number of NATO troops killed in Afghanistan since 2001, Russia called on the UN Security Council to support a plan to eradicate Afghanistan's opium crop. American officials oppose the initiative, saying that taking away Afghan farmers' only profitable crop will strengthen the Taliban. The Afghan drug trade is of special significance to Russia; it is the world's largest consumer of Afghan heroin, and over 30,000 Russians die of drug abuse each year. [Reuters, AP]
"Life is better now" in Swat Valley, resident says. A year after the Pakistani government wrested control of the region from insurgents, a local administrator says life has improved considerably. Though assassinations and suicide bombings still take place, girls are now able go to school and people feel free enough to buy movies, listen to music and exercise some freedom of speech. But challenges remain: many schools destroyed in the fighting between Pakistan and insurgent forces have yet to be rebuilt, and checkpoints and curfews continue to obstruct civilian life. [BBC]
Petraus says Afghan war unwinnable without UK. The head of U.S. Central Command acknowledged that Britain, saddled with ballooning deficits, faces "tough choices," but urged its leaders not to cut back on their commitment to Afghanistan, telling them "the coalition cannot succeed without you." The UK, with 10,000 troops in Afghanistan, is the second largest foreign contingent in the country after the United States. [AP]