Karzai demands NATO stay in major bases by year's end

In a double blow to the NATO mission in Afghanistan Karzai demanded that the U.S. confine its troops to major bases by 2013 and the Taliban have suspended ongoing peace talks. Both the U.S. and NATO have been trying to arrange talks with the Taliban for two years and the recent talks showed some signs of progress. However the Taliban have as a condition of an agreement that NATO forces withdraw.
The Karzai declaration would hasten the transition to Afghans taking control for security but it would also prevent any attempts by the U.S. and special forces to attack the Taliban and increase village security.
The Taliban have withdrawn from talks because they claim the U.S. has changed preconditions for the talks. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has just left Afghanistan after two days of talks including with president Karzai. Apparently Karzai's statement was a surprise. NATO and the U.S. will be furious. However, Karzai has been at loggerheads with NATO and the U.S. rather often. He may very well back down or more likely just not carry through with his demand. In his meeting with Panetta, Karzai did not bring up the issue of the transfer of the soldier accused in the killing spree to Kuwait. Afghan legislators have demanded he be tried in Afghanistan.

A member of the Kandahar provincial council says that at least seventeen civilians were killed as a result of the shooting spree. However the governor's puts the number killed at 15. Haji Samad an elder from the area said:"Eleven members of my family are dead. They are all dead," Haji Samad, an elder from Panjwai district.

A spokesperson for the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) Captain Brockhoff could not confirm that anyone was killed. This cautiousness about such issues often makes authorities seem foolish or completely out of touch with reality. He did say however:"This is a horrific incident, and our thoughts are with the families of the affected. Our initial reports indicate multiple civilians - between four and six- are wounded. Those civilians are receiving care at coalition medical facilities,"

Bernard Smith an Al Jazeera reporter said: "We are now being told by the police sources that the US soldier left his base at three o clock this morning. It would have been pitch-black wherever he walked," "The soldier went through three separate houses, shooting at people as they slept in their beds.""The soldier then returned to his base and turned himself in. One wonders why a soldier would be allowed out of the base at 3 AM to wander off by himself and obviously armed as well.

Some reports say that the soldier suffered a nervous breakdown before the incident. So a person suffering a nervous breakdown is allowed out of the base at 3 AM and armed into the bargain.The soldier will be held in U.S. custody. The Afghan authorities will probably have nothing to do with any trial or punishment since U.S. troops are not subject to Afghan law.

There is already a huge surge in opposition to NATO forces after the recent burning of copies of the Koran. There has been strong opposition as well to night raids that often kill civilians. This latest incident will make things worse.

Forty one people have already been killed since the Koran burning. I imagine similar violent protests will follow this event.

Najeeb Azizi an analyst in Kabul said::"It is a very tragic incident in particular because the Afghan and US governments are trying to sign a strategic agreement for a long term," Everyone seems to have forgotten that the U.S. far from getting out entirely from Afghanistan in 2014 is trying to negotiate a long term stay in the country. For more see this Al Jazeera article. The event is also covered here by Reuters. in the BBC.

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NATO fails to secure Russian help for Afghanistan

Actually NATO should probably be happy that Russia is not helping the Taliban or jihadists as Western Countries especially the US did during the era when the Soviets occupied the country. Any new Russian involvement would be hugely unpopular in Russia as the Russian people have already suffered in costs and casualties from their earlier involvement in Afghanistan. The Russian government has allowed NATO to transport goods through Russia and on through former Soviet satellites to Afghanistan as an alternative to the very dangerous Pakistan routes. The US via NATO is attempting to spread the burden and misery of the Afghan mission as widely as it can. This is from the BBC.


Nato fails to secure Russian help
Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has failed to gain any commitment from Russia to help win the war against the Taliban insurgency.

On Wednesday Mr Rasmussen asked Moscow to provide helicopters to Afghanistan and also requested Russian help in training the Afghan air force.

But he told the BBC he had received no positive response from the Kremlin.

Mr Rasmussen's visit is the first by a Nato chief since relations chilled after last year's Russian-Georgian war.

The three-day visit, which has included meetings with President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, signifies the alliance's determination to strengthen ties with Moscow, analysts say.

Common ground

Mr Rasmussen said he had presented Russian leaders with a list of "concrete proposals" to help the Western alliance defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan - specifically requesting helicopters, helicopter training and spare parts.

"The Russians do realise that if we left Afghanistan behind and if Afghanistan once again became a safe haven for terrorism then they could suffer from it because terrorists would spread from Afghanistan through central Asia to Russia," Mr Rasmussen told the BBC.

Helicopters are considered a crucial asset in the war against the Taliban, for their ability to move troops around and provide air support. Nato allies have found a shortage of helicopters one of the main handicaps in fighting the insurgency.

The Kremlin has said it wants Nato to win in Afghanistan and is willing to help. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that while differences remained between Moscow and Nato, both sides were trying "to normalise relations and bring them to a new level".

But while many analysts agree it is not in Russia's interests to see Nato fail in Afghanistan, Moscow is still deeply suspicious of the old Cold War alliance, says the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Moscow.

Giving helicopters to a US-backed regime in Kabul goes way beyond what the Kremlin is prepared to do, our correspondent adds.

Sensitive subject

Analysts say the atmosphere between the alliance and Moscow has improved recently. Earlier this month, the Nato-Russia Council convened for the first time since the Georgia conflict.

During this visit, issues such as missile defence, Iran and a joint review of new security challenges were expected to be on the agenda.

The expansion of Nato remains a sensitive issue between the two sides, with Russia firmly opposed to any move towards membership by Ukraine or Georgia.

Mr Rasmussen has previously said they would become Nato members as and when they satisfied the necessary criteria, but emphasised that Moscow should not see that as a threat.

Story from BBC NEWS:
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Published: 2009/12/17 12:48:42 GMT

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New ISAF commander in Afghanistan links development to security

This is from xinhuanet.
So bomber McNeil is leaving at last. I wonder if the new commander will also pursue a policy of air strikes that has alienated many Afghans. The emphasis upon security first and then development may lead to little or no development in those areas where the security is threatened by the Taliban. This may be deliberate as a means of showing that only co-operation with the occupiers will bring aid or development. The Taliban counter tactic will be to disrupt security in areas where there is development.The article does not mention where McKiernan is from but he is an American as was McNeil. This is an American mission of the type in which the UN is used as legitimising cover and NATO to provide aid and cannon fodder to take some of the burden off the U.S. McKiernan led the ground troops in the invasion of Iraq.


New ISAF commander in Afghanistan links development to security
http://www.chinaview.cn/index.htm 2008-06-04 20:48:09

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KABUL, June 4 (Xinhua) -- The newly appointed commander of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) military in Afghanistan General David McKiernan on Wednesday linked the development with security in the post-Taliban nation.
"First and foremost there can be no development in Afghanistan without security, but long-term security cannot exist without development and good governance," the commander told newsmen at his first press conference in ISAF's headquarters here.
McKiernan who took over the command of more than 52,000-strong NATO-led ISAF on Tuesday also called on the alliance's member states to be committed towards Afghanistan.
"I want to know that our partners here in ISAF are committed to this mission," he stressed.
Moreover, McKiernan noted that the future must be the credibility of the Afghan government to include security with its people.
However, the general did not speak about his military strategy towards Taliban-related militants but added that the NATO-led ISAFtroops would continue to support the Afghan government, its security forces and reconstruction process of Afghanistan.
"I am committed personally to help the Afghan government and Afghan people down the road to a secure and prosperous Afghanistan," he said, adding "Afghan people can rely on my personal resolve and on the resolve of ISAF."
Insurgency-related violence is on the rise in Afghanistan which claimed around 80,000 lives mostly of militants last year, a bloodiest one since the Taliban regime collapse in 2001.

U.S. warns of 'implosion' of NATO alliance in Afghanistan

If European countries devote much more to the Afghan mission the governments who do so face an implosion of support in the next elections. There is precious little support for the missions among citizens of the countries involved. The U.S. managed to drag NATO into the swamp through the UN and ISAF.
The whole original U.S. led Afghan mission with its ludicrously named Operation Enduring Freedom has managed to restore Afghanistan to the biggest opium producer in the world not too long after Powell had given the Taliban a multi-million dollar check for drastically curtailing poppy production. With the overthrow of the Taliban all this changed. Now the Taliban, plus drug lords, plus Karzai officials are again earning millions from the trade.
The Afghans are free to fly kites but not to convert to Christianity or even to publish material about women's rights. They are not free even to criticise each other in parliament!
The U.S. rescued NATO from oblivion by making it an instrument of its foreign policy aims when the UN will not or cannot meet them. The sooner it implodes the better. NATO is a relic of the Cold War and the sooner its re-incarnation as an instrument to help out the U.S. in its foolhardy and dangerous mission to spread democracy, freedom, etc. meaning U.S. power and securing of resources and markets the better.

Independent.co.uk
US warns of 'implosion' of Nato alliance in Afghanistan
By Mary Dejevsky in MunichMonday, 11 February 2008
Mr Gates said that the transatlantic alliance was under such stress over operations in Afghanistan that it risked imploding. Speaking in Munich to an audience that included presidents, foreign and defence ministers of many EU countries, Mr Gates acknowledged serious shortcomings in Nato operations in Afghanistan.
This was because the alliance was not working properly together to share the burden, he said.
"I am concerned that many people on this continent may not comprehend the magnitude of the direct threat to European security," he said. "We must not – we cannot – become a two-tiered alliance of those who are willing to fight and those who are not. Such a development, with all its implications for collective security, would in effect destroy the alliance."
Mr Gates's words took to a new, and far more acute, level arguments that have become ever sharper in recent months and culminated at an ill-tempered Nato summit in Lithuania last week. While the disputes at the Vilnius summit remained mostly behind closed doors, however, Mr Gates brought them loudly into the open at Munich.
Mr Gates was careful to name no names, but suggestions that some allies were less willing than others to sustain casualties have become a sensitive matter in Germany, where politicians are fending off calls from the Nato command either to contribute more troops to the international force as a whole, or to divert some of the troops serving under German command in northern Afghanistan to the more hostile terrain in the south.
Both the German Foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and the Defence minister, Franz Josef Jung, who had already addressed the Munich conference, had been at pains to set the record straight from their perspective. They insisted that the total number of German troops had been limited by the Bundestag, and there was little chance of an increase. They insisted, too, that northern Afghanistan was a dangerous place and Germany has taken casualties. They also argued that if, as Nato has proposed, some German troops were redeployed in the south, this would put at risk the continued success of the operation in the north.
German ministers recognise that their unwillingness to redeploy troops or increase the number is seen in some quarters as evidence of something akin to national cowardice.
While it is possible that France will send an additional 1,000 troops to help out in the south, this will not end the argument, which is partly about the whole performance of the alliance in Afghanistan, and partly about broader issues, such as the Nato command structure and commitment of individual members. As other speakers also noted, there was a deep gulf in public support for the operation between the US and many European countries, where it was doubted that success was even possible.
Mr Gates went out of his way to defend the Afghanistan operation as all of a piece with Nato's "core" purpose: "To defend the security interests and values of the transatlantic community". He presented Afghanistan as the epitome, in practice, of the threats that had been discussed by the alliance in theory during the 1990s – with the combination of an unstable state, terrorists linked by new technology; the nexus between drugs, terrorism and organised crime, as well as a "safe haven" that would allow "Islamic extremists to turn a poisonous ideology into a global movement".

Australian French Leaders stress support for Afghan mission

This is from yahoo. I assume the US will welcome this. NATO is pushing hard for more support and declarations of support. It is not clear if Sarkozy is going to let French troops serve in more dangerous areas though. The mission is not popular in France. Kevin Rudd seems to be moving more towards the same sort of support of the US as Howard did except for the Iraq mission. Although Rudd signed on to Kyoto that is about all he has done on the environment. It seems he is mollifying Bush in his support for the Afghan mission.

Australian, French leaders in Kabul to stress support Sat Dec 22, 2:02 PM ET



KABUL (AFP) - The leaders of France and Australia paid surprise visits to Afghanistan Saturday, stressing support for efforts against terrorism after the bloodiest year of a Taliban-led insurgency.



French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd met their Afghan counterpart separately in whistlestop visits and also held talks with the commander of a NATO-led military force, US General Dan McNeill.

Sarkozy told journalists who travelled with him from Paris that the international community could not afford to lose the "war against terrorism" in Afghanistan.

The various nations with troops here must be united and committed in their efforts to build Afghanistan so it can withstand insurgents linked with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, he said.

"It is absolutely necessary that Afghanistan does not become a state which falls in the hands of terrorists, as we saw with the Taliban," he said.

The Taliban were removed from power in late 2001 in a US-led invasion weeks after the September 11 attacks by the Al-Qaeda network, which had training camps here and is still allied with the Afghan militant movement.

Sarkozy said his visit, on which he was accompanied by his defence and foreign ministers and other officials, was to assess the situation in Afghanistan.

France would "take a number of decisions" in the coming weeks, Sarkozy said, adding it would "reinforce" the personnel it has here to train the Afghan army and police.

France has about 1,600 troops serving with NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) that is involved in efforts to defeat a Taliban-led insurgency and build Afghanistan's security forces.

Australia has about 900, most of them in the south-central province of Uruzgan -- one of the most volatile in Afghanistan and a former Taliban stronghold -- where Rudd started his trip before travelling up to Kabul.

He told reporters after talks with Karzai that his country was committed to Afghanistan for the "long haul."

"Over the next several months, I would also be encouraging other friends and partners and allies in NATO to continue their commitments to this country and where possible extend them," he said.

Australia has denied media reports last weekend that it would keep its troops in Afghanistan longer than the scheduled end of their mission in August next year, saying no decision had been made yet.

But Rudd's Labor Party had "indicated for some time that they would consider further reasonable requests for military assistance in Afghanistan," a spokeswoman said then.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi is expected in the coming days, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates also visited in recent weeks.

The flurry of trips comes at the tail end of the bloodiest of the Taliban-led insurgency, with around 6,000 people dead -- most of them rebels -- and a spike in suicide and other bombings.

The Australian, a daily newspaper, reported Monday that Rudd's new government had warned NATO and its allies that they would lose the war against hardline Taliban forces unless they urgently changed tactics.

The United States has also announced that a review is under way.

Karzai has been calling for more focus on militant bases outside of Afghanistan, notably in Pakistan, while there has been increased emphasis this year on training the Afghan forces and promoting reconciliation.

A NATO summit in Bucharest in April is set to review efforts to help Afghanistan end the insurgency and establish democracy