TALLINN, Estonia — NATO foreign ministers endorsed a plan on Friday that sets in motion the phased withdrawal of foreign troops from lead combat roles in Afghanistan as the United States-led coalition prepares to begin to hand over responsibility for the war to Afghans.
The details of the plan, and how it will be implemented in the field, were not clear at the end of a two-day meeting here. But the secretary general of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, stressed that foreign troops would continue to support Afghan soldiers long after they relinquished command.
“It will not be a pull-out; it will not be a run for the exit,” Mr. Rasmussen said at a news conference. “Afghan soldiers will need our support for quite some time. It will be a gradual process.”
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So now that we (Nato) have broadcast our intentions, the Taliban and AQI can bide their time and give the new gov’t a false sense of security. Then after significant numbers of troops are gone they can then crank up the attacks and eventually bring the country back under their control. Sorry I can’t be more optimistic, but I do hope my assessment is wrong.
mid island mike
It’s a concern, Mike but in my view Karzai made his bed when he stole an election and threatened to join the Taliban. Now he will have to lie in it. Canadians were correct all along.
The west cannot work with a seventh century country which refuses to change… cannot read or write…and supports local tribes depending on which area a citizen happens to live in.
It’s far to expensive and it’s time to go.
There are times when we cannot help no matter how hard we try. That’s just the way the world is and reason enough to “bail”. The idea appalls me just so you know but watching what our troops are being put through by political forces in this country aided and abetted by a left leaning media I see no alternative.
I think NATO feels the same way.
Let’s call it ‘Vietnam Redux’ and bring our troops home.
Better days ahead.
It is completely irrelevent whether we trust Karzai or not, since for now anyway, it seems a majority of Afghanis trust him, and in a country as backward, fractured, and tribal as Afghanistan, that is the only thing that will allow us to prepare to leave, because as far as most Afghanis are concerned, we are there fighting our war, for our purposes, on their soil. Besides, it would be naive, foolish, and ignorant to believe that Afghanistan, a war zone for the last three decades, could just throw off its entire culture in the middle of it all, and become a feminized westernized democracy overnight. If that ever happens, it is still centuries away, so the best we can do is point Afghanistan in the right direction and hope for the best.
NATO and Canada’s military both will probably miss Afghanistan before long, because there is no target for spending cuts quite as prominent as an idle military, and the only thing that could guarantee those cuts come any faster, would be for Canada to become involved in another UN peacekeeping quagmire in one of Africa’s “Forever Wars” such as in the Congo for instance.