Petraeus: US military is not the only solution in Afghanistan

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
US Gen. David Petraeus said Sunday that experience in Iraq shows it will take political and economic progress as well as military action to tackle increased violence in Afghanistan. "You don't kill or capture your way out of an industrial-strength insurgency," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. His comments come as a debate over the need to redeploy troops from Iraq to Afghanistan has become a central issue in the US presidential campaign. Petraeus, who is widely credited with pulling Iraq back from the brink of civil war, is taking over as chief of US Central Command, the headquarters overseeing US military involvement throughout the Middle East, as well as Afghanistan and the rest of Central Asia. He'll hand over the reins in Iraq to Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno Tuesday during a ceremony at the US military headquarters at Camp Victory on the western outskirts of Baghdad.