Word: afghanization
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...allies to boost its troop commitment, but two days before the London summit it announced an increase of only 500 extra soldiers plus a so-called "flexible reserve" force of 350 deployable at short notice - far fewer than Washington had hoped for, and with an emphasis on training Afghan forces rather than engaging in frontline fighting. "This could strain relations with Washington ... [Berlin] is now inviting the Americans to do the dirty work in Afghanistan," says Henning Riecke, an analyst at the Berlin-based German Council on Foreign Relations...
...Although the conference reiterated ambitious targets for rapidly expanding the Afghan National Army and the police force, the fact that no timetable was set for the phased transfer of security control from NATO to these indigenous forces underscores a sense of caution over how quickly Afghan forces will be able to take over. Last November, Brown had suggested that five provinces would be under Afghan control by the end of 2010, and President Obama set a goal of beginning to draw down U.S. troops in July 2011. Thursday's communiqué avoids most such specifics. Britain's Secretary of State...
Despite a retooled strategy that links a U.S. troop surge to efforts to build the Afghans' capacity to govern and protect themselves, Western optimism over Afghanistan's prospects has continued to ebb. So, a key task of the Jan. 28 conference convened in London by Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown and co-hosted by Afghan President Hamid Karzai and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was to foster confidence that a positive outcome could be achieved sooner rather than later. "Today's conference represents a decisive step towards greater Afghan leadership to secure, stabilize and develop Afghanistan," declared...
...That same adjective might seem to apply to the failure of the Afghan government to include in its delegation even one woman. When Orsana Ashraf, the founder of the nongovernmental organization Humanitarian Assistance for the Women and Children of Afghanistan, first heard about the London conference, she began to lobby officials to ask that women's views be properly represented. The response, she says: "They said this isn't ladies' business; this is about security...
...omission of women from the Afghan delegation may, however, be taken by many as a portent. The Afghan strategy now being pursued by NATO and its regional partners is predicated on the goal of achieving a political solution, and reconciliation with many of those currently fighting under the Taliban banner. The London conference roundly endorsed a reconciliation fund aimed at wooing Taliban fighters to cross sides, while Pakistan and other regional players are pressing for some form of power-sharing deal to be negotiated with the movement's leaders if they cut ties with al-Qaeda. Such talk has Afghan...