NAVO-overleg over missie Zuid-Afghanistan

[Lex]

Gates seeks more from European allies

EDINBURGH, Scotland — Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday pushed European allies for more troops to re-energize efforts in southern Afghanistan, where the Taliban insurgency has increased its attacks in the 18 months since NATO took command of the war.
Even as it struggles to find a way out of Iraq, the Bush administration is saddled with troubling signs in Afghanistan, where the government is weak, the insurgency is relentless and casualties are mounting. Gates also must worry about sagging public support.
Opening two days of talks with allied defense and diplomatic officials, Gates hoped to stir discussion of forming an overarching strategy for Afghanistan that could be adopted by NATO government leaders at a summit next April. It was not clear that all NATO members agree such a plan is even needed, and no firm decisions on a way forward were expected in Edinburgh.
The Edinburgh talks marked the latest effort by Gates to inject a sense of urgency not only in the south, where the Taliban's influence is strongest, but also on the broader challenge of strengthening the central government in Kabul and building an economy that does not revolve around the illicit drug trade.
Gates has cautioned since the beginning of his tenure at the Pentagon one year ago that the gains achieved in Afghanistan over the past six years are at risk of being lost unless the U.S. and its NATO allies carry out comprehensive military, economic and diplomatic solutions.
"If the world's greatest democracies cannot summon the will to accomplish a mission that all agree is morally just and essential for our collective security, then the citizens of these democracies will begin to question the mission's worth," Gates told the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.
He and other U.S. officials have expressed concern that much of Europe has lost sight of the purpose of fighting in war-weary Afghanistan, whose former Taliban rulers gave sanctuary to al-Qaida leaders, including Osama bin Laden, in the years before they carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Gates wants NATO to adopt and publish a short statement — the first of its kind, according to his aides — that would spell out briefly and plainly why the war is important, what U.S. and allied troops are doing there and how they can help the Afghan government.
The document would look three to five years into the future to set an overarching goal, plus set benchmarks to measure progress, according to a senior defense official who discussed the concept on the condition that he not be identified. His name could not be used under ground rules set by the Pentagon.
Critics of the Bush administration's efforts in Afghanistan charge that the war in Iraq has been a distraction, drawing away resources and energy that could have been used to stabilize Afghanistan.
In testimony on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged in unusually blunt terms that the U.S. has chosen to make Iraq first priority.
"In Afghanistan we do what we can," Mullen said. "In Iraq we do what we must."
The allies who want to help in Afghanistan also feel constrained — for reasons that do not always meet with U.S. approval. For example, to limit the risk of casualties, some allied governments put heavy restrictions on the way their troops can be used. U.S. officials complain that this limits their usefulness.
The U.S. has about 26,000 troops in Afghanistan; together, NATO members other than the U.S. have a similar total. Britain is the largest non-U.S. contributor, with about 7,800 troops.
This year has been the deadliest in Afghanistan since the invasion. More than 6,200 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence, according to an Associated Press tally of figures from Western and Afghan officials.
Gates wants the Europeans to pony up more troops — about 3,500 trainers for the Afghan police, plus additional mentors for the Afghan army, 16 helicopters and at least three battalions of ground forces.
Maj. Gen. Bernard Champoux, NATO's deputy commander for security in Afghanistan, said a successful operation to retake the southern town of Musa Qala from Taliban fighters was a hopeful sign. But he acknowledged that the Afghan and allied forces are hard pressed to hold onto their gains.
"We do have insufficient forces," Champoux said. "We have to be selective, and we have to prioritize how we're going to apply force."
There are now about 11,000 NATO troops in southern Afghanistan, under British command.
Some question whether more troops are needed.
In a new assessment published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Wednesday, analyst Julianne Smith cautioned that the situation in Afghanistan is growing increasingly unstable.
"Afghanistan is heading in the wrong direction, and short of a complete overhaul of NATO strategy, it threatens to take its people, the future of the alliance and trans-Atlantic relations along with it."
Gates had one-on-one meetings Thursday with Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay and Australia's new defense minister, Joel Fitzgibbon. Then he was attending a dinner hosted by British Defense Minister Des Browne and joined by their counterparts from the other NATO allies with troops in southern Afghanistan: the Netherlands, Canada, Australian, Romania, Denmark and Estonia.

By Robert Burns - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Dec 13, 2007 15:53:15 EST, 20:53:15 GMT

[Lex]

Gates Arrives in Scotland for Afghan Meetings

EDINBURGH, Scotland, Dec. 13, 2007 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and R. Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, arrived here today for meetings with allies working in Regional Command South in Afghanistan.
Defense and foreign affairs representatives from the eight countries participating in RC South will discuss local and regional issues in Afghanistan, how to better operate together, the need for troops and progress in connecting the Afghan government to its people.

There are 11,000 troops in RC South with its headquarters in the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar. The region is under British command as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. A U.S. maneuver battalion of 4th Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, is in the region, as well as a U.S. aviation bridging force with 16 helicopters. British Defense Minister Des Browne is hosting the meeting.

The ministers will also discuss a proposal that Gates made during a NATO meeting in Nordvick, Netherlands, in October: a NATO strategic concept paper looking out three to five years in Afghanistan.

"What the secretary proposed was a short, readable document ... that explains why we're (in Afghanistan), what we're doing, and how we're going to help the Afghan government meet its goals," said a senior defense official talking on background.

Representatives of the eight countries in RC South – the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Denmark, Canada, the Netherlands, Estonia and Romania – will discuss ways that ISAF should move forward. The paper would serve as a broad roadmap with goals and benchmarks for the goals, the official said. "If we want to get here by year five, where do we need to be at each of these years so that we are able to determine progress?" he said.

This sort of document has not existed before, the official said. There is a NATO operating plan and the Afghan National Defense Strategy, "but we don't have this connecting tissue," he said.

The Defense Department has a working draft, but it has not finished the government approval process yet, and will not release the document. "There will be a variety of countries offering drafts, and someone is going to have to pull this together to be endorsed and signed by the heads of government" at the NATO meetings in April, a senior State Department official said, also on background.

The strategic concept paper is designed to do several things. At its basic level, it simply explains the mission. It may serve as a very broad resource-planning tool. The paper also would point out opportunities for countries to specialize in governance, economic of reconstruction aid.

The defense official said the paper might also convince parliaments or assemblies to stay in the Afghan mission. Finally, "maybe just by having this document, it allows other countries that are not participating to say 'I get it. Here's how we can help,'" the official said.

Foreign ministry representatives will discuss what they see as absolutely essential. Aid to governance is at the top of the list. The ministers will discuss what governance means and whether NATO can help it to work more effectively.

"We believe the Taliban has a district-by-district strategy, and to compete with them we have to enable national institutions to touch the districts," the senior State Department official said.

The Afghan Ministry of Education is one example of how the central government can reach the people. Under Taliban rule, only 800,000 boys were in school. Now it's about 5 million boys and girls – still only 45 percent of the school-age population. Health care is another example. Six years ago, roughly 8 percent of Afghans had health care access; now, 65 percent do. "How do we keep advancing that?" he asked.

The NATO strategy in Afghanistan must move simultaneously on three tracks: security, reconstruction and governance. "You've got to have security. You have to separate the enemy from the people so they have some sense that they are not going to be intimidated," the State Department official said. "You've got to connect the people to the government."

An operation in southern Afghanistan is under way, and officials are searching for generators to get the electrical network up. They are already looking to locate mobile health clinics in the region. They are working with tribal leaders to get progress moving at the local level. The official said the momentum sustains itself.

The State and Defense officials agreed that there are still "registered shortfalls" in Afghanistan for troops. ISAF is three maneuver battalions short, needs more aviation support -- particularly helicopters -- and there are a number of other specialties that have not been filled.

"We're making progress in Afghanistan, but it's fragile and it has to be reinforced," the defense official said.

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

[Lex]

Aan het overleg in Edinburgh doen behalve Gates de ministers van defensie van Nederland, Australië, Canada, Australië, Roemenië, Denemarken en Estland mee.

Vreemd dat een land als Australië 2x vertegenwoordigd is en het VK helemaal niet. 
Maar dat zal wel een slip of the pen zijn van deze krant.

[Lex]

EDINBURGH - NAVO-landen zijn donderdag in het Schotse Edinburgh aan een tweedaags overleg begonnen om de missie in Zuid-Afghanistan door te lichten. De Taliban hebben in die regio de afgelopen maanden meer voet aan de grond weten te krijgen.
De Amerikaanse minister van defensie Robert Gates wil naar eigen zeggen het overleg benutten om de NAVO-landen ervan te doordringen dat urgentie geboden is. Niet alleen bij de strijd in het zuiden, maar ook ten aanzien van de wederopbouw en om de regering sterker in het zadel te helpen. Gates uitte deze week in het Amerikaanse Congres zijn frustraties over enkele Europese NAVO-leden, die volgens hem een te kleine bijdrage leveren aan de missie.
Ook zal in Edinburgh gesproken worden over een op te stellen document, waarin in heldere bewoordingen de reden van de aanwezigheid van NAVO in Afghanistan uiteen wordt gezet, alsmede de doelen voor de komende jaren en hoe de deelnemers aan de missie die kunnen bereiken. Gates hoopt dat dit document het de landen die deelnemen aan de ISAF-missie gemakkelijker maakt om in eigen land extra steun te genereren. Aan het overleg in Edinburgh doen behalve Gates de ministers van defensie van Nederland, Australië, Canada, Australië, Roemenië, Denemarken en Estland mee.
In de zuidelijke provincie Helmand werd deze week een succes geboekt. De stad Musa Qala, die sinds februari in handen van de Taliban was, werd met een gezamenlijk offensief van Afghaanse, Britse en Amerikaanse strijdkrachten heroverd. Aan het offensief deden tevens Nederlandse Apaches, Chinooks en F-16s mee.

Telegraaf
do 13 dec 2007, 20:56