Australia: Amid violence, US vows to stay the mission in Afghanistan

The Sydney Morning Herald

US staying strong in Afghanistan after attack on military base runway

Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, in a series of meetings with troops and Afghan leaders, says the US must never lose sight of its mission in the war, despite recent violence including what appeared to be an attempted attack near the runway of a military base where he was about to land.

It wasn't clear whether it was an attempt to attack the defence chief, whose travel to southern Afghanistan was not made public before he arrived. Panetta was informed of the incident after landing.

"We will not allow individual incidents to undermine our resolve to that mission," he told Marines at Camp Leatherneck. "We will be tested, we will be challenged, we'll be challenged by our enemy, we'll be challenged by ourselves, we'll be challenged by the hell of war itself. But none of that, none of that, must ever deter us from the mission that we must achieve."
Advertisement: Story continues below

According to Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain John Kirby, an Afghan stole a vehicle at a British airfield and drove it onto a runway, crashing into a ditch about the same time that Panetta's aircraft was landing.

He said the pickup truck drove at high speed onto the ramp where Panetta's plane was intended to stop.

No one in Panetta's party was injured.

Panetta's trip to the warfront, which included three stops in the south, was planned months ago, long before the weekend shooting spree allegedly by a US soldier that claimed the lives of 16 villagers, including women and children.

Everywhere he went, including a meeting with provincial leaders, Panetta referred obliquely to the massacre but didn't go into it in detail. Instead, he talked about the need for the Afghan and coalition forces to keep working together to help transition security of the country to the Afghan forces.

The trip, however, has propelled Panetta into the centre of escalating anti-American anger in Afghanistan, with the shooting spree coming on the heels of the burning of Korans and other religious materials at a US base. US officials have said the Koran incident was a mistake.

Major General Mark Gurganus, the new Marine commander at Leatherneck, told reporters he has seen little backlash in his region over the shooting incident and saw only a few protests of the Quran burning.

Panetta and other US officials say the shooting spree should not derail the US and NATO strategy of a gradual withdrawal of troops by the end of 2014. But it has further soured relations with war-weary Afghans, jeopardising the US strategy of working closely with Afghan forces on the transition.

There were clear concerns about security at Camp Leatherneck.

Before Panetta came into the hall, Sergeant Major Brandon Hall told the more than 200 Marines to take their weapons outside and leave them there. Afghan troops had already been told not to bring their guns in.

For the rest of the article:
http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-staying-strong-in-afghanistan-after-attack-on-military-base-runway-20120315-1v484.html