Word: missioners
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...Afghanistan will be both the most important issue on the agenda, and, in a larger sense, a metaphor for a needed debate about NATO's purpose - a debate about what it is supposed to do, and what each of its members is expected to contribute to its mission. Nearly two decades after the end of the cold war - which NATO decisively won without firing a shot in anger - the business of refocusing the alliance remains a work in progress. NATO forces are involved in peacekeeping in the Balkans, and its political leaders are concerned with extending its membership...
...just Germany, however, where the political will to fight is lacking. Spain, which has some 750 troops in Afghanistan, is not expected to up that contribution substantially any time soon. "[The Spanish] supported Afghanistan when they understood the mission as humanitarian," Robert Matthews, a researcher at Madrid's Foundation for International Relations and Foreign Dialogue, explains. "But as the operation has become more military in nature, support has dropped." Even in France, which has superb armed forces held in high regard by the public, and which is on the verge of cementing its "reintegration" into NATO's command structure, there...
...most effective - and that isn't always going into battle," says the Bundestag's Polenz. "The problem," says the ISAF source in Afghanistan, "is that there are those who did not sign up for this. They signed up for something else; for a nation-building, peacekeeping and humanitarian mission. So it's no good saying you have to go down south and fight. They just aren't going to do it. They can't. Their governments would fall...
...potential rewards versus cost in blood and treasure, I would ask you to consider what is worth the lives of three of your loved ones? Or eight? Or more? It would be a tragedy for my 8 and 3 to have died without us being able to complete our mission, but it maybe even more tragic for 8 and 3 to become anything higher...
...while his warm words undoubtedly caused Sarkozy's ears to tingle warmly when they reached him within the Elysée, McCain made it clear elsewhere he was in Paris on a mission of his own. Flanked by fellow Senators Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, McCain noted they'd undertaken their week long fact-finding tour of Iraq, Jordan, Israel, England and France as members of Congress's Armed Services committee - not as some sort of campaign foreign road show. Perhaps, but discussing international affairs with foreign leaders and enhancing McCain's presidential hopes aren't mutually exclusive. Still, McCain...