Credibility of NATO at Risk in Afghanistan: Gates

Andre de Nesnera, 'Defining NATO's Role in Afghanistan', Voice of America, 7 November 2007.

EXCERPT: "Sean Kay, a NATO expert at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, says NATO has three basic missions in Afghanistan.  The first one is assisting the government of president Hamid Karzai in its efforts to rebuild and stabilize the country.  'The second one is more precise: it's training the Afghan army and also assisting in facilitating police training, although that's not a primary NATO mission.  And then the third one is combat: hunting down and eliminating insurgents in southern Afghanistan.  Therein lies one of the core problems in that there are basically two conflicting missions in effect -- one is the peace-building operation and the other is combat,' says Kay. [...]

“'In Afghanistan, a handful of allies are paying the price and bearing the burdens of allies to create the secure environment necessary for economic development, building civic institutions and establishing the rule of law,' [said U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates ]. The failure to meet commitments puts the Afghan mission -- and with it, the credibility of NATO -- at real risk.'"

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See also: 'Afghan Story Needs Better Pitch', Embassy, 7 November 2007

Related posts:
'NATO Funds Additional Helicopters in Afghanistan', 29 October 2007
'Coalition Warfare in Afghanistan: Burden-sharing or Disunity?', 16 October 2007
'NATO in Afghanistan: A Test of the Transatlantic Alliance', 19 July 2007