Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman: We may not be winning in Afghanistan

By THOMAS M. DeFRANK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF

Updated Thursday, October 9th 2008, 1:59 PM

Tomasevic/Reuters

A U.S. Marine, from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, has a close call after Taliban fighters opened fire during a May skirmish.

WASHINGTON - Don't look for better news from Afghanistan anytime soon, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff again warned Thursday.

"All the signals now...raise my level of concern considerably," Admiral Mike Mullen told reporters this morning. "It's an increasingly challenging problem."

In September the plainspoken Mullen told Congress, "I am not convinced that we're winning it in Afghanistan. I'm convinced we can."

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Thursday, Mullen reiterated those concerns. "The trends across the board are not going in the right direction," he said.

Even with the arrival of several thousand Army and Marine combat troops early next year, he added, "Next year will be tougher in Afghanistan."

"Winning" there not only means defeating Taliban and other insurgents on the battlefield but also eliminating their safe havens, cracking down on government corruption, improving the country's economic woes and reducing poppy production whose revenues help finance the bad guys.

"We're not going to be able to kill our way to victory in Afghanistan - or Pakistan, for that matter," Mullen said.