US Commander warns of 'failure' in Afghanistan

The Afghan war will be lost unless more troops are sent to pursue a radically revised strategy, the top US and Nato commander said in a confidential assessment that lays out stark choices for President Barack Obama.

In the assessment, sent to Washington last month and leaked yesterday, Army General Stanley McChrystal said failure to reverse "insurgent momentum" in the near term risked an outcome where "defeating the insurgency is no longer possible".

A copy of the 66-page document was obtained by the Washington Post and published on its website with some parts removed at the request of the government for security reasons.

"Resources will not win this war, but under-resourcing could lose it," General McChrystal wrote.

"Failure to provide adequate resources also risks a longer conflict, greater casualties, higher overall costs and ultimately, a critical loss of political support. Any of these risks, in turn, are likely to result in mission failure."

General McChrystal, who commands more than 100,000 Western troops, two thirds of them American, has drafted a separate request spelling out how many more he needs but has not sent it to the Pentagon, which says it is considering how he should submit it.

Opinion polls show Americans and their European Nato allies turning against the nearly eight-year-old war.

A request for more troops faces resistance from within Mr Obama's Democratic Party, which controls Congress, but refusing to give General McChrystal what he wants would open Mr Obama to criticism from Republicans who say he should act quickly.

In a series of interviews on Sunday Mr Obama said he would not rush to a decision and wanted to first review his strategy for the region before considering whether to send more troops.

"I just want to make sure that everybody understands that you don't make decisions about resources before you have the strategy ready," he told ABC.

Mr Obama does not even expect a request for more troops for "a little bit, because there's an assessment ongoing of where we are right now", spokesman Robert Gibbs added yesterday. "The President is going to focus on getting the strategy right."

General McChrystal's spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Tadd Sholtis, said that, while General McChrystal does not believe he can defeat Afghanistan's insurgency without more troops, he could carry out a mission with different goals if Mr Obama ordered it.

"The assessment is based on his understanding of the mission as it was presented to him. If there's a change in strategy, then the resources piece changes," he said. He said General McChrystal had no intention of resigning if Mr Obama denies his request.

In his assessment, General McChrystal painted a grim picture of the war so far, saying "the overall situation is deteriorating".

He called for a "revolutionary" shift putting more emphasis on protecting Afghans than on killing insurgents.