var_1=President Obamas top national security adviser said on Sunday that the United States would likely continue conducting airstrikes against extremists in Afghanistan despite a sharp warning from President Hamid Karzai that civilian casualties were fast turning ordinary Afghans against the United States In a pre taped interview with NBCs Meet the Press Mr Karzai suggested that the United States risked losing a moral fight against the Taliban if too many civilians died in American attacks But Mr Karzai has also come under pressure from the United States for what advisers call inadequate efforts to fight corruption and received a similar warning on Sunday by Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany The security adviser General James L Jones spoke six days after Afghans blamed United States airstrikes in western Afghanistan for the deaths of scores of civilians American officials apologized for the deaths and said that they are investigating the incident Still they say that reports of a death toll exceeding 100 were exaggerated and that Taliban militants who were being targeted might have forced civilians to serve as human shields Were going to take a look at trying to make sure we correct those things we can correct but certainly to tie the hands of our commanders and say were not going to conduct airstrikes would be imprudent General Jones said on ABCs This Week We cant fight with one hand tied behind our back he said without flatly ruling out the possibility of a change in approach Last week Mr Karzai and the Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari held a three way meeting with Mr Obama at the White House while the Pakistani military launched an intense offensive against surging Taliban extremists in the northwest part of that country General David H Petraeus who heads the US Central Command said on Sunday that the United States had real concerns about Pakistans survival But he also said he believed there was adequate security around Pakistans nuclear arsenal Certainly the next few weeks will be very important in this effort to roll back if you will this existential threat a true threat to Pakistans very existence he said The general welcomed the latest Pakistani offensive as qualitatively different from previous efforts to contain militants The Talibans push toward Islamabad he told Fox News Sunday seems to have galvanized all of Pakistan not just the president and prime minister General Petraeus said he was also heartened that Pakistan had shifted some forces from the east where they face India to the northwest as United States officials had urged He also said he had named a brigadier general to study the use of airstrikes in Afghanistan In a lengthy meeting in Berlin Mrs Merkel warned Mr Karzai to crack down on corruption and improve security in northern Afghanistan where more than 3800 German soldiers are based The Karzai government needed to act more decisively against corruption said Eckhart von Klaeden foreign policy spokesman for Mrs Merkels conservative bloc The Merkel government fears that the Taliban might increasingly target German soldiers as German federal elections in September near to pressure Berlin to withdraw all its troops Polls show most Germans would support a withdrawal though they also support Mr Obama who is increasing the United States effort in Afghanistan In 2002 the Social Democrat chancellor Gerhard Schroder was narrowly re elected after running a strong anti war and anti US campaign That led to a serious rift with the United States that took years to heal Despite her concerns Mrs Merkel told reporters that Germany would continue its military engagement in Afghanistan and would put more effort into training Afghan police In his pretaped interview Mr Karzai said: Our villages are not where the terrorists are And thats what we kept telling the US administration Civilian casualties are undermining support in the Afghan people for the war on terrorism and for the relations with America How can you expect a people who keep losing their children to remain friendly? The people are still with us Mr Karzai added But there is a limit General Jones suggested however that the Afghan president knew that airstrikes were unlikely to end I think he understands we have to have a full complement of our offensive military power when we need it the general said. The the the the the.