Word: nato
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...former NATO official in Afghanistan compares the warlords to shrapnel lodged in an artery: Infection is a risk, he says, but pulling it out could be even worse. "There are so many other things we have to worry about, so why go and open this can of worms?" he asks. In some areas, tackling the militias can backfire. In the northeastern province of Badakhshan, local commander Nazir Mohammad runs the provincial capital, Faizabad, as one big protection racket. Foreign humanitarian organizations that don't hire his security services face attacks. When organizers at the German-run regional military-assistance base...
...tone is all very well, but if Obama does follow through on Biden's promise to "sincerely" listen to Europe, he is likely to hear a cacophony of confusion. For Europe - be it the European Union or the European members of NATO - has no clear consensus on strategic priorities or how they should be pursued. That applies to challenges from Afghanistan and Guantánamo to Iran and Russia. The Obama Administration may want to cast aside the hawkish unilateralism of the Bush era and its divide-and-rule methods that so jarred European sensitivities. But as the new President...
...That's evident in the debate about troop levels in Afghanistan. Almost half of NATO's 55,000 troops in Afghanistan are American, and Obama plans to almost double the U.S. military presence, although he says the emphasis will be on a "new realism" in objectives. Biden said the U.S. will come up with a new strategy in the next few months and has invited suggestions from all friends and allies. (See pictures of Joe Biden...
...while Britain and the Netherlands have troops on the frontline, other allies insist that reconstruction is as important as combat and refuse to redeploy. Speaking yesterday in Munich, British Defense Secretary John Hutton scolded his NATO allies for not stepping forward to share combat duties, warning that there could be no freeloaders in the fight against the insurgents. "It is better to volunteer than to be asked," he said, denouncing the European habit of "looking to the Americans to do all the heavy lifting...
...Richard Holbrooke, Obama's new envoy to Afghanistan, acknowledged this reluctance when he said the U.S. "inherited a situation of very grand rhetoric with inadequate, insufficient resources." At the same time, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer cajoled Europe not to rule out more troops. "That is not good for the political balance of this mission," he said. "If Europe wants a greater voice, it needs to do more...