Kenneth, the comments are regarding burden sharing. You are a flip flopper like Kerry. One day you complain about the little our allies are doing and the next you say something else.
NATO should be doing much more. The Bush administration is correct and you are wrong.
US softens tone over NATO troops in Afghanistan
Constable in Kabul
February 9, 2008
THE US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, has toned down his rhetoric a day after saying NATO was at risk of splitting into members who were willing to "fight and die to protect people's security, and those who were not".
At the same time, the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, on a visit to Afghanistan on Thursday, said a "more coherent international approach" was needed in the country to build on what she described as significant progress.
Mr Gates said after a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Vilnius, Lithuania, that he did not think the alliance was failing in its efforts to secure Afghanistan, despite his criticism of some members that had declined to provide additional combat troops or lift restrictions on operations.
"I don't think there's a crisis or a risk of failure," Mr Gates said, adding that more fighting forces would create an "opportunity to make further progress faster" in beating back the insurgency.
The argument over "burden sharing" overshadowed the Vilnius gathering but the issue will probably be resolved only at a summit in Romania in April.
At present the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force has 42,000 troops in Afghanistan, drawn from all 26 members of the alliance and 13 other countries. But only America, Britain, Canada and the Netherlands have sent large contingents to southern Afghanistan, where the struggle against the Taliban is fiercest.
The Canadian Defence Minister, Peter MacKay, reaffirmed Ottawa's demand for an extra 1000 troops before a parliamentary vote next month that will decide whether it can prolong the mandate of its 2500 troops in southern Afghanistan.
The French Defence Minister, Herve Morin, signalled a willingness to help Canada, and a government spokesman said France was considering reinforcements. Mr Morin played down media reports that 700 paratroopers could be deployed to the south, but Canadian television reported on Thursday that senior Canadian officials would soon fly to Paris to negotiate the transfer.
Diplomats said Romania, Poland and Norway were also among those to signal they could do more. But there was no formal offer of troops at the talks, despite strong warnings from NATO's secretary-general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, that Afghanistan posed a danger to European security.
Dr Rice and David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary, visited Afghanistan on Thursday. They met troops in Kandahar and met the President, Hamid Karzai, in the capital, Kabul.
They pressed the President to accept an international special envoy for Afghanistan. Last month Mr Karzai rejected the British politician Paddy Ashdown as the special envoy.
At a press conference Mr Karzai tried to repair strains with the West, saying he was misquoted when he criticised British troops and was sad when Lord Ashdown's appointment "didn't work out".
The New York Times, Reuters, The Washington Post |
