US Defence Secretary Robert Gates yesterday blamed the past US failure to deploy enough troops to Afghanistan for the Taliban's revival and said US troops would not withdraw regardless of the outcome of President Barack Obama's strategy review.
"We are not leaving Afghanistan. This discussion is about next steps forward and the president has some momentous decisions to make," Mr Gates said in a TV programme taped at George Washington University to be aired by CNN on Tuesday.
Mr Gates said the Afghan and Pakistani governments should not be nervous about the US review.
"I don't think we have the option to leave," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. "That's quite clear."
Mr Obama faces pivotal decisions after the top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, presented a grim assessment of the eight-year war.
Eight American soldiers were killed on Saturday when tribal militia stormed two combat outposts in eastern Afghanistan, the worst US loss in more than a year.
Mr Gates urged US military advisers to speak "candidly but privately." He defended Gen McChrystal, who has been criticised for appearing to lobby in public for more troops, calling him "exactly the right person" to command the war effort.
The administration is debating whether to send up to 40,000 more troops, or scale back the mission and focus on striking al-Qaeda cells, an idea backed by Vice President Joe Biden.
The defence secretary suggested the failure of the United States and its allies to put more troops into Afghanistan in earlier years, when former US president George W. Bush shifted resources to invade Iraq, had given the Taliban an edge.
"Because of our inability, and the inability, frankly, of our allies, (for putting) enough troops into Afghanistan, the Taliban do have the momentum right now, it seems," Mr Gates said.
However, he said the United States could not afford to give al-Qaeda and the Taliban the propaganda victory of a US retreat in Afghanistan, where mujahideen forced the Soviet Union to withdraw after a decade of bloody warfare.
Reuters