NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has admitted the US and NATO underestimated the scale of the mission in Afghanistan. In a commentary in the German newspaper Der Spiegel, Rasmussen wrote, “After nine years of international involvement it has become painfully clear that the price we have to pay is much higher than expected — especially regarding the international and Afghan soldiers killed. It cannot be disputed that the international community underestimated the size of this challenge in the beginning.”