Petraeus: Afghanistan Like Iraq in 2007

[unhappycamper]

Petraeus: Afghanistan Like Iraq in 2007
December 10, 2009
Agence France-Presse

The U.S. general who masterminded a troop surge in Iraq said Wednesday that Afghanistan was "no more hopeless" than Iraq before the 2007 campaign there.

Gen. David Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, drew the comparison days after President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in a move partly modeled on the surge in Iraq.

Petraeus said violence was at a higher level in Iraq on the eve of the troop buildup there two years ago than in Afghanistan, and that Taliban insurgents commanded less popular support than militants in Iraq.

"While certainly different and, in some ways tougher than Iraq, Afghanistan is no more hopeless than Iraq was when I took command there in February 2007," Petraeus told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"Indeed, the level of violence and number of violent civilian deaths in Iraq were vastly higher than we have seen in Afghanistan."


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/petraeus-afghanistan-like-iraq-in-2007.html?wh=wh

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. Which was just like Vietnam in 1967

Iraq and Afghanistan are very different places and for a General to make that kind of statement is silly and unwise.