PHOENIX, Arizona (AFP) –
US President Barack Obama warned Monday that victory in Afghanistan would be neither "quick" nor "easy," days before an election there marred by rising Taliban violence.
"The insurgency in Afghanistan didn't just happen overnight," Obama told the Veterans of Foreign Wars service organization in the southwestern state of Arizona ahead of Afghanistan's presidential election on Thursday.
"We won't defeat it overnight. This will not be quick. This will not be easy," Obama said, explaining his strategy of intensifying the fight against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan was now taking effect.
The president defended the war as a necessary conflict which was "fundamental" to the defense of American people in depriving Al-Qaeda of a safe-haven to plot follow-on attacks to the September 11 strikes in 2001.
Obama noted an upsurge in "fierce" fighting in Afghanistan, but vowed to constantly adapt US tactics and ensure the troops have the tools and equipment they need to do the job.
He did not, however, offer detailed insight into the evolving war strategy, which has seen troops and billions of US dollars pour into the country since the new US president took office in January.
US troop levels, currently 62,000, are set to reach 68,000 in coming months, more than double the number in place at the start of the year, and analysts predict the head of US and NATO forces, General Stanley McChrystal, may ask for more.
Last week, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates left open the possibility of eventually sending more forces to Afghanistan but warned US resources were currently deeply stretched with more than 130,000 troops still in Iraq.
Obama has already ordered an additional 21,000 servicemen to Afghanistan ahead of Thursday's elections, in line with his strategy of turning the US focus from Iraq to a conflict he says poses a greater security threat.
In unveiling his strategy earlier this year, Obama declared the US goal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat" Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.
But to meet this narrowly defined goal, the president is backing an elaborate village-by-village fight while building up the Afghan state from the ashes of 30 years of war.
Earlier, in Afghanistan, top candidates in the presidential race held rallies attended by thousands of cheering supporters.
Seventeen million voters will go to the polls to elect a president for only the second time in Afghanistan's history. They will also elect 420 councilors in 34 provinces, in a huge logistical operation handicapped by rampant insecurity.
President Hamid Karzai, who has ruled Afghanistan since the US-led invasion overthrew the Taliban regime in 2001, is the front-runner but a strong campaign by former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah may force a run-off.
Security fears, already acute, were heightened by a massive suicide bomb attack outside NATO headquarters near the US embassy in Kabul on Saturday, which killed seven Afghans and hurt almost 100 others.
Afghanistan is expected to mobilise all available 300,000 Afghan and foreign security forces to protect voters, while the Taliban have threatened to attack polling stations, escalating their bid to derail the polls.
Earlier on Monday, US Afghan war ally Britain said the war in Afghanistan was "winnable," despite its military death toll there recently passing 200 and an poll showing a majority of Britons oppose the fight against the Taliban.
