bobdina
10-22-2009, 11:33 AM
By LORNE COOK, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Published: 22 Oct 2009 09:30
BRATISLAVA - NATO's chief urged alliance nations and its partners Oct. 22 to step up efforts to build Afghan security forces, saying the price of inaction in the insurgency-hit country is too high to pay.
Ahead of NATO defense talks in Slovakia, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen warned that failure now would destabilize the region and ultimately export that insecurity to Europe.
"I'm well aware that there is an increase in the number of people ... who are asking if the costs of our engagement in Afghanistan is too high," he told a conference of defense experts. "The costs of inaction would be far higher.
"Leaving Afghanistan behind would once again turn the country into a training ground for al-Qaida. The pressure on nuclear-armed Pakistan would be tremendous, insecurity would spread throughout Central Asia and it would only be a matter a time until we in Europe would feel the consequences," he said.
NATO leads a force of some 70,000 troops drawn from 43 nations whose aim has been to foster security, democracy and reconstruction in a country wracked by more than 30 years of war, while U.S. forces separately try to root out al-Qaida.
But insurgents, led by the Taliban and al-Qaida and backed other networks and criminal gangs, have seized the initiative, inflicting a growing number of casualties and undermining international support for the operation.
NATO defense ministers, meeting in Bratislava, are set to thrash out the benefits of a new counter-insurgency strategy, with the focus on protecting Afghan civilians rather than hunting down fighters.
But the approach, drawn up by the top commander in Afghanistan - U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal - calls for a long-term and concerted effort, and it is unclear how many nations are willing to make that commitment.
Even as the United States debates whether to send up to 40,000 additional troops, the Netherlands and Australia are making plans to leave, while Britain has been hamstrung by budgetary problems.
And in a new book, Canada's former top general, Rick Hillier, warned: "Afghanistan has revealed that NATO has reached the stage where it is a corpse, decomposing" and in need of "lifesaving" or "the alliance will be done."
"It was crystal clear from the start that there was no strategy for the mission in Afghanistan," he wrote.
Indeed McChrystal's strategy may be NATO's last chance.
Holding up implementation of it has been uncertainty over the fraud-tainted Afghan elections. For the strategy to work, people must have confidence in their government, and NATO wants a reliable partner to work with.
So no troop commitments are expected to be made in Bratislava, and possibly even before the second round of the polls are held on November 7, with President Hamid Karzai well placed to return to office.
One area where NATO and its partners can make advances is in training the Afghan army and police, and building them up to a combined total of around 400,000 personnel over the next four to five years.
"We all have to invest more in training and equipping the Afghan security forces and we need other international actors to beef up their efforts to help with reconstruction and development," Rasmussen said.
"It is in fact a very simple calculation: we have to do more today in order to be able to do less tomorrow," he added.
The ministers were to meet for a working dinner at 1730 GMT, focused on NATO's budgetary problems and military capabilities, with talks on Oct. 23 focused almost exclusively on Afghanistan.
Published: 22 Oct 2009 09:30
BRATISLAVA - NATO's chief urged alliance nations and its partners Oct. 22 to step up efforts to build Afghan security forces, saying the price of inaction in the insurgency-hit country is too high to pay.
Ahead of NATO defense talks in Slovakia, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen warned that failure now would destabilize the region and ultimately export that insecurity to Europe.
"I'm well aware that there is an increase in the number of people ... who are asking if the costs of our engagement in Afghanistan is too high," he told a conference of defense experts. "The costs of inaction would be far higher.
"Leaving Afghanistan behind would once again turn the country into a training ground for al-Qaida. The pressure on nuclear-armed Pakistan would be tremendous, insecurity would spread throughout Central Asia and it would only be a matter a time until we in Europe would feel the consequences," he said.
NATO leads a force of some 70,000 troops drawn from 43 nations whose aim has been to foster security, democracy and reconstruction in a country wracked by more than 30 years of war, while U.S. forces separately try to root out al-Qaida.
But insurgents, led by the Taliban and al-Qaida and backed other networks and criminal gangs, have seized the initiative, inflicting a growing number of casualties and undermining international support for the operation.
NATO defense ministers, meeting in Bratislava, are set to thrash out the benefits of a new counter-insurgency strategy, with the focus on protecting Afghan civilians rather than hunting down fighters.
But the approach, drawn up by the top commander in Afghanistan - U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal - calls for a long-term and concerted effort, and it is unclear how many nations are willing to make that commitment.
Even as the United States debates whether to send up to 40,000 additional troops, the Netherlands and Australia are making plans to leave, while Britain has been hamstrung by budgetary problems.
And in a new book, Canada's former top general, Rick Hillier, warned: "Afghanistan has revealed that NATO has reached the stage where it is a corpse, decomposing" and in need of "lifesaving" or "the alliance will be done."
"It was crystal clear from the start that there was no strategy for the mission in Afghanistan," he wrote.
Indeed McChrystal's strategy may be NATO's last chance.
Holding up implementation of it has been uncertainty over the fraud-tainted Afghan elections. For the strategy to work, people must have confidence in their government, and NATO wants a reliable partner to work with.
So no troop commitments are expected to be made in Bratislava, and possibly even before the second round of the polls are held on November 7, with President Hamid Karzai well placed to return to office.
One area where NATO and its partners can make advances is in training the Afghan army and police, and building them up to a combined total of around 400,000 personnel over the next four to five years.
"We all have to invest more in training and equipping the Afghan security forces and we need other international actors to beef up their efforts to help with reconstruction and development," Rasmussen said.
"It is in fact a very simple calculation: we have to do more today in order to be able to do less tomorrow," he added.
The ministers were to meet for a working dinner at 1730 GMT, focused on NATO's budgetary problems and military capabilities, with talks on Oct. 23 focused almost exclusively on Afghanistan.