>>Afghanistan...NATO was brought in...American is now only a modest part of the effort there.<<
Another inaccurate statement from American Spirit, one that he has made previously in the past. The U.S. has twice as many troops in Afghanistan as NATO. The NATO troops are primarily involved in peacekeeping activities, not combat operations.
Care to acknowledge your error?
story.news.yahoo.com
U.S. Spooks NATO Allies with Afghan Command Call
By Mark John and Will Dunham
POIANA BRASOV, Romania (Reuters) - The United States urged NATO (news - web sites) on Wednesday to produce plans to take control of all military operations in Afghanistan (news - web sites), possibly from next year, in a call which spooked some of its alliance partners.
Speaking before a meeting of NATO defense chiefs in Romania, the U.S. ambassador to the alliance asked NATO to devise a blueprint by February to take over operations, now split between a 20,000-strong U.S.-led force and a NATO one half that size.
Given the continuing violent insurgency in the impoverished Islamic state, some NATO nations fear this would mean changing the alliance's mandate from a peacekeeping mission to a combat role which would be less popular with their voters.
"Obviously we hope to see, at some point, integration of the NATO effort and Operation Enduring Freedom," Nicholas Burns said, with NATO taking control of the combined effort.
"It could be 2005. It could be 2006. It just depends on how things go," he told reporters ahead of the two-day talks in the Transylvanian ski resort of Poiana Brasov.
In Kabul, Lieutenant General David Barno, commander of U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, told reporters that a merger would not mean the United States withdrawing its troops.
Until now, the merger of forces was seen as a distant goal and raised concerns among nations who are comfortable helping NATO peacekeeping but would likely resist any attempt to get them in direct combat against insurgents there.
"We are against a merger of the two mandates," Defense Minister Peter Struck told reporters, adding that he doubted the German parliament would in any case approve such a move. He said other NATO members backed its position, but did not name them.
Others also confirmed resistance among some NATO allies to a merger of operations but said the alliance's planned expansion to the west and, ultimately, south of the country made greater cooperation -- if not a merger -- between the two inevitable.
"Beyond the political pros and cons, there is a reality on the ground which I think will inevitably have its say," said Romanian Defense Minister Ioan Pascu. "Logically speaking, things are inevitably evolving toward coordination."
DOUBTS OVER POST SEPT. 11 POLICY
The U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom seeks to crush Taliban and al Qaeda remnants and hunt down fugitives including Osama bin Laden (news - web sites). About 15,000 of its troops are American, with the rest made up of contributions from 19 other countries.
NATO has a 9,000-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) force, focused on peacekeeping and security duties in the capital Kabul and the north.
The credibility of NATO's mission has been undermined by allies' reluctance to come up with troops and equipment, but the 26-member alliance is committed to expanding to the west as soon as possible and later to the more dangerous south.
Taking over U.S. operations would be another challenge entirely given the reservations of some NATO nations to U.S. policy in the fight against terror since the Sept. 11 attacks.
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer suggested one solution would be to have one commander for the whole operation but maintain two missions -- for example, one a combat role and the other the nation-building tasks that NATO has been doing.
"I think we can find a way of fulfilling our ambition to integrate the two missions and still respect those elements which are important in some allied nations," he told Reuters, referring to domestic political constraints on military action.
The U.S. call overshadowed the announcement that a NATO quick-reaction force launched two years ago was now up and running with an initial troop strength of some 17,500.
The aim of the NATO Response Force, which is to include warships and fighter planes, is to give NATO more clout in reacting to crises around the world within five days. It is due to reach full capacity with 24,000 troops by 2006.
- Additional reporting by Antonia Oprita |
