Ex-Soviet States Pledge NATO Help On Afghanistan

[FrenchieCat]

MOSCOW (Reuters) -- A grouping of former Soviet states that controls a key land route from Europe to Afghanistan has agreed to offer "every kind" of help to NATO forces there, its head said.

The seven members of the Moscow-based Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) control a supply route that allows NATO to bypass Pakistan, where convoys are repeatedly attacked by Taliban militants.

"The united position of the is that we should give every kind of aid to the antiterror coalition operating in Afghanistan," Secretary-General Nikolai Bordyuzha told journalists at a briefing.

"The interests of NATO and the countries regarding Afghanistan conform unequivocally," he said.

CSTO members Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan have signed deals with NATO members to allow nonmilitary cargo to cross their territory en route to Afghanistan.

The CSTO, billed as a counterweight to NATO, also includes Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. Unlike NATO, the CSTO does not allow military action beyond the borders of its member states.

Bordyuzha said he hoped ties between Russia and the United States -- and between NATO and the CSTO --would improve under U.S. President Barack Obama.
http://www.rferl.org/content/ExSoviet_Group_Pledges_NATO_Help_On_Afghanistan/1513854.html

[rug]

1. Radio Free Europe?

I hope they let them use the fallout shelters too.

[MadHound]

2. Do we really want to put our key overland routes in the hands of Russia?

Is this really a good idea? No, not really, simply another good reason to get the hell out of the war.

[FrenchieCat]

3. The point is that they offered, moreso than if anyone will take them up on their offer.

Doh!

[MadHound]

4. Actually this has been batted around for weeks now.

And more than likely Obama will take them up on the offer, foolish as that is. The Khyber Pass route through Pakistan is virtually shut off to the US, Kyrgystan's air base is off limits to us, so about the only real supply route runs partially through Russia. If you don't find it troubling that we're going to run a major supply route for a south-central Asian war through part of Russia then you really don't understand the history of Russia and Russian/US relations.

But hey, it's Obama who is making this decision, so all is well, right? No matter what sort of blood money we pay to Russia, how many innocents are killed, how many lives and how much money we waste, all is fine because it has the stamp of Obama on it:puke: