Word: mission
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...spite of crumbling public support for the mission in Afghanistan, the U.S.'s NATO allies should be able to muster an extra 5,000 troops to join President Barack Obama's surge, officials at the alliance say. But this will still fall well short of the 10,000 troops Washington has been seeking. And it is likely to come with demands for a more robust strategy to build civil institutions, including benchmarks on stamping out fraud and corruption in the Afghan government...
...made it clear that he expects more help from his allies, insisting that extra NATO troops was a test of the alliance's credibility. In turn, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said he was confident 5,000 extra troops could be found. "This is not a U.S. mission alone: America's allies in NATO have shared the risks, costs and burdens of this mission from the beginning," said Rasmussen, who has traveled around Europe in recent weeks to drum up more military muscle. (See pictures of life in the National Afghan Army...
...only Britain has come up with a plan to send extra troops - about 500 - while the other major European powers, notably Germany and France, are reluctant to commit any. Surveys consistently show that most European voters feel the Afghan mission is failing and are opposed to any additional deployments. In Britain, around 70% of the public favors an early withdrawal. The global economic crisis is also setting new budgetary constraints on government expenditure. "I don't see anyone sending massive numbers. Most countries are under pressure to announce exit strategies," says Shada Islam, Senior Program Executive at the European Policy...
...from governments at a meeting of Foreign Ministers on Thursday and Friday. Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan was in Brussels Wednesday to meet key E.U. officials. And military officers will also meet in the southern Belgian town of Mons on Dec. 7 to discuss the mission's resources. They should all lower expectations about how much Europe is willing to contribute...
...Contrary to the American conventional wisdom that sees the U.S. mission in Afghanistan as central to Pakistan's security, Pakistani generals see a U.S. departure as key to stabilizing their country. "What is happening on this side of the border will die down once the American troops begin to withdraw," says Sherpao, echoing a widely held Pakistani assumption. "The extra troops will apply pressure on the Taliban, but then a parallel process would also start. By the time they start leaving, a consensus will begin to be formed on the future of Afghanistan...