Press Availability: Major Gen. (Ret.) Paul Eaton on the Shootings in Afghanistan
Washington, D.C. – This morning brought news of another in a string of shootings of Western trainers and military personnel by Afghan security forces and civilians. That trend has accelerated in the wake of the accidental burning of Korans by U.S. military personnel.
Army Major Gen. (Ret.) Paul Eaton, currently senior advisor with the National Security Network, is available to comment on the shootings and their implications for the NATO mission in Afghanistan – and put them in context of military experience.
Gen. Eaton served more than 30 years in the United States Army, including combat and post-combat assignments in Iraq, Bosnia and Somalia. As a major general he was assigned to Iraq as Commanding General of the Coalition Military Assistance Training Team (CMATT), where he developed, designed and began the training of the Iraqi military and security forces from 2003 to 2004.
To schedule an interview with Gen. Eaton, please contact Emma Einhorn at 202-289-5999 or eeinhorn@nsnetwork.org. (Note: NSN’s Communications Director, Sara DuBois, is on vacation this week.) A statement by Gen. Eaton follows:
“The American reaction to the inadvertent Koran burning by U.S. soldiers has been measured, thoughtful and appropriate.
The reaction on the part of the Afghan population and the resultant murder of American servicemen reflects the rage of the Afghan population at the continued presence of foreign soldiers in their country, an Afghan government unable to effectively communicate a return to calm and a clergy that continues to incite violence.
Our policy choices now are to stay on mission and timeline, to accelerate the troop withdrawal or to extend the mission beyond 2014.
This is not the time to change President Obama’s Afghanistan strategy of transition to Afghan authorities and gradual but sustained drawdown of U.S. forces, with an end to conventional combat operations by December 2014. ISAF Commander General John Allen and Ambassador Ryan Crocker are taking prudent steps to increase force protection measures to reduce the risk to our men and women in order to stay on mission and protect our citizens in and out of uniform, while transitioning the security mission to the Afghan government.”
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