Bush says US to send more troops to Afghanistan
By BEN FELLER
Associated Press
July 3, 2008
Page 2 of 2
"The Taliban and their supporters have, without question, grown more effective and more aggressive in recent weeks, and as the casualty figures clearly demonstrate," Mullen said. He added that "there's no easy solution, and there will be no quick fix."
The latest assessment from the Pentagon, released last week, describes a dual terror threat in Afghanistan: the Taliban in the south, and "a more complex, adaptive insurgency" in the east, made up of groups ranging from al-Qaida and Afghan warlords to Pakistani militants.
Military officials say security has deteriorated in large part because of the lawless, tribal border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Bush said he will seek to remind his peers at the G-8 summit that the battle against violent extremists goes on.
"The temptation is to kind of say, well, maybe this isn't really a war, maybe this is just a bunch of disgruntled folks that occasionally come and hurt us," Bush said. "You know, that's not the way I feel about it. This is an ongoing, constant struggle to defend our own security."
The other G-8 nations are Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia. The summit will be the last of Bush's presidency.
On other topics:
-- Bush said he wants a multi-country diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff with Iran, but will not remove the option of a military strike. Asked directly about the possibility of an Israeli strike against Iran, "I have made it very clear to all parties that the first option ought to be solve this problem diplomatically."
-- The president blasted the Democratic-led Congress for not advancing his energy proposals, including lifting a ban on offshore oil and gas drilling. The president even went so far as to ask Americans to get involved in a lobbying effort. "They ought to be writing their Congress people about it," he said.
-- Bush said he hoped the G-8 leaders would come to terms on long-range goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He said that should come first, before an attempted agreement on shorter-range goals for cutting emissions, a matter of higher priority for many European nations.
-- Bush said he will urge other nations to make good on earlier pledges to help alleviate malaria, HIV-AIDS and other diseases in the developing world. "We need people who not only make promises, but write checks, for the sake of human rights and human dignity, and for the sake of peace," he said.
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Associated Press writers Robert Burns and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.
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