Posted by
Reeson on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 11:15:25 AM
An article on the DoD web site talks about the need for effort from the international community in Afghanistan. The problem is that the international "community" has not been very helpful to date. Repeated requests by the NATO commander on the ground for more troops and economic assistance have gone largely unheeded. Now SecDef Gates is talking about boosting U.S. troop levels there. Our European "allies" are quite content to let us shoulder the burden, even when they have a direct stake in the outcome. Link and excerpts below:
http://www.defenselink.mil/News/NewsArticle.aspx?id=2716
By Sgt. Sara Wood, USA
American Forces Press Service |
The solution in Afghanistan will not be military in nature, but will be possible with the cooperation and work of the international community, the former commander of U.S. European Command said here today.
“The good news about Afghanistan is that you’ve got about 60 countries that are doing something in Afghanistan. That’s an awful lot of potential that can be brought to good use,” Marine Gen. James L. Jones, who led EUCOM for four years while serving as NATO’s supreme allied commander in Europe, said in an interview.
The No. 1 problem in Afghanistan, which the international community has not done a good job dealing with, is narcotics, Jones said. “It’s preventing the legitimacy of the economic revival of Afghanistan,” he said. “It’s providing money for the insurgency; it’s contributing to the corruption of public officials and prevents the emergence of the new Afghanistan.”
Afghanistan also needs work on the quality and quantity of its police forces, and the government needs to be more visible within the country, providing proof of its strength and the progress it is making, Jones said.
Afghanistan presents several challenges for the U.S. and its international partners, Jones acknowledged, but said he remains optimistic that success there can be achieved and sustained with the right amount of outside help. |