Afghanistan dangers 'underrated'
From National Security Correspondent David Ensor
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Pakistan border soldiers inspect a barricade near the Afghanistan border.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The American public and news media are underestimating the continuing dangers and challenges remaining in Afghanistan, senior German officials have said.
Germany's ambassador in the United States, Wolfgang Ischinger, said Wednesday, "Afghanistan should be on the front burner," given the danger of renewed Taliban and al Qaeda activity there and the magnitude of the task of rebuilding the country after 24 years of war and occupation.
Yet from American journalists, "I only get questions about Iraq."
Ischinger said the Bush administration and Berlin "see eye to eye" on the need for additional resources for Afghanistan, but the American public understanding of the urgency of the matter is "lagging" due to media preoccupation with Iraq.
Lt. General Norbert van Heyst, the German commander of international forces in Afghanistan, told reporters he wants to put a few hundred troops in each of eight provincial cities to protect proposed reconstruction teams.
Van Heyst is in Washington discussing how to get more nations to contribute troops to the effort in Afghanistan. "Opponents of peace are reorganizing" in Afghanistan, van Heyst said.
A senior German official said many of the recent attacks against international forces there were "planned across the border" in Pakistan.
The official said he believed General Pervez Musharraf's government in Pakistan had the "political will" to crack down on the Taliban and al Qaeda in the tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan but were being held back by military problems.
"They don't have enough forces to cover the whole area," the official said.
