NATO treads cautiously into Afghan quagmire

[maddezmom]

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer will tell an international meeting on Afghanistan next week that the military alliance is willing to do more to help Afghans find an elusive peace.

But while European NATO nations back that goal, they are equally determined not to see the alliance roped into U.S. counter-terrorism activities whose tactics they often reject, nor offer Washington a premature exit from the war it began.

"Europe's leaders recognize that success in Afghanistan is crucial for NATO," said Jean-Yves Haine, research fellow at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

"But there is a view that NATO is being used as the cleaning lady for operations that went on before," he added. The United States did not involve the alliance in 2001 when it launched the invasion to oust Afghanistan's militant Islamic Taliban rulers.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060127/wl_nm/afghan_nato_dc;_

[rodeodance]

1. whow--Afgan Quagmire--in a headline. Jr is NOT like that--as Condi

has afgan is a model for IRAG!---whow

[EuroObserver]

2. k&r. Britain to commit nearly 6,000 troops to Afghanistan

http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,1696050,00.html
· Reid says deployment needed to thwart Taliban
· Most will be based at heart of opium poppy area

Richard Norton-Taylor
Friday January 27, 2006
The Guardian

Britain will deploy nearly 6,000 troops to Afghanistan - more than expected - over the next few months in the biggest and most hazardous military operation since the invasion of Iraq, the cabinet agreed yesterday.

Most of the troops will be based in Helmand province, hostile territory at the heart of the country's opium poppy area, in a three-year deployment costing £1bn.

John Reid, the defence secretary, admitted the dangers but said the risks were less than "handing back Afghanistan to the Taliban and terrorists". He added that 90% of the heroin reaching Britain's streets came from Afghanistan. He said the chiefs of staff had told him the deployment was manageable and did not depend on reducing the number of British troops - now about 8,500 - in Iraq.

There are already some 1,000 British troops in Afghanistan. The total will peak at 5,700 in the summer, falling back to about 4,700 when engineers have built the British base at Lashkar Gar, capital of Helmand province. The British taskforce will consist of the Colchester-based 16 Air Assault Brigade, including 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment. For the first time, US-designed, British-made Apache attack helicopters will be deployed.

The brigade is part of Afghanistan's Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), to be commanded by a British general, Sir David Richards, with the support of some 1,000 British soldiers based in Kabul. Isaf's job is peacekeeping and "nation building", including training a new Afghan army and helping to restructure the country's economy.

However, MPs here and in other Nato countries are concerned about the force's rules of engagement and its relationship with Operation Enduring Freedom, the US forces engaged in anti-terrorist operations against al-Qaida and Taliban suspects. Specifically, tension could arise over the use of US aircraft and bombing tactics.

/more...

[donkeyotay]

3. An Afghan quagmire? How many quagmires can one president create

and still be considered competent? How is this making us safer?