NATO welcomed Denmark's former Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen on his first day in the organization's top job. He vowed to continue to fight for stability in Afghanistan and to renew relations with Russia. Operations in Afghanistan, and relations with Russia and the countries bordering the Mediterranean, will be NATO's top priorities over the next four years, the alliance's new secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said on Monday. "I want to see NATO reach its full potential as a pillar of global security," Rasmussen told journalists at his first press conference in his new role.
Operations in Afghanistan, and relations with Russia and the countries bordering the Mediterranean, will be NATO's top priorities over the next four years, the alliance's new secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said on Monday.
"I want to see NATO reach its full potential as a pillar of global security," Rasmussen told journalists at his first press conference in his new role.
Former Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen takes office as NATO's new secretary-general on Monday, outlining such priorities as preventing Afghanistan from becoming a terror centre again, and improving cooperation with Russia. REUTERS - NATO will pursue its drive for a strategic partnership with Russia, but Moscow must respect the sovereignty and integrity of its neighbours, the new head of the alliance, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said on Monday. Rasmussen 56, who took over on Saturday as secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, faces many challenges but none more daunting than finding a winning strategy for the war in Afghanistan and improving relations with its former Cold War foe Russia.
REUTERS - NATO will pursue its drive for a strategic partnership with Russia, but Moscow must respect the sovereignty and integrity of its neighbours, the new head of the alliance, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said on Monday.
Rasmussen 56, who took over on Saturday as secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, faces many challenges but none more daunting than finding a winning strategy for the war in Afghanistan and improving relations with its former Cold War foe Russia.
Nato's new chief has called on its European members to find more troops for Afghanistan to stop the country becoming "a Grand Central Station of international terrorism". Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that he wanted a proper balance between Nato forces from North America and those from Europe to avoid the perception that the mission in Afghanistan was predominantly an American operation. His remarks, on his first day in the job, came as Nato's top commander in Afghanistan prepared to demand thousands more American troops, setting him on a collision course with the Obama administration. Experts who have worked with General Stanley McChrystal on the Afghanistan strategy review say the American commander believes that thousands more troops are needed to save the mission.
Nato's new chief has called on its European members to find more troops for Afghanistan to stop the country becoming "a Grand Central Station of international terrorism".
Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that he wanted a proper balance between Nato forces from North America and those from Europe to avoid the perception that the mission in Afghanistan was predominantly an American operation.
His remarks, on his first day in the job, came as Nato's top commander in Afghanistan prepared to demand thousands more American troops, setting him on a collision course with the Obama administration.
Experts who have worked with General Stanley McChrystal on the Afghanistan strategy review say the American commander believes that thousands more troops are needed to save the mission.
If the mission is "not admit that the USA lost a second war this decade" then he is probably correct. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Simon Scharma once said that the British empire fell when the distance between the rhetoric used to defend it back home and the policy needed to implement it on the ground became so wide that the colonial adminstrators lost their faith.
At what point will our administrators on the ground recognise that we cannot create the peace demanded by politicians with the local allies we have chosen and the tactics the military dicate ? And what might they choose to do if they did ? keep to the Fen Causeway
how many million armed pashtuns are we going to convert to the joys of democracy with the latest, greatest weapons?
the afghan peasant gets to choose, local or foreign tyrant, it's going to cost a lot of lives to try and convince the poor sod the latter is preferable.
especially as the media already has its hands full convincing the taxpayers back home that for reasons of national security, the taliban merits spending billions on trying to vaporise.
when women back home can't even get equal pay yet...
you can't bomb millions of renegade cave-dweller nomad goatherds into coca-colonisation, but plenty of folks make millions even failing, so you can't say war's any loss to them, can you?
our 'brave lads and lasses' are being thrown to wolves...
the people are seeing through the spin, more and more, a Very Good Thing. ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
Afghan officials say Taliban fighters have returned to the northern province of Kunduz. This comes only days after the end of a joint German and Afghan offensive to push back Taliban influence ahead of Afghan elections. "When the operation began, the leaders of the Taliban fled to neighboring provinces and other areas. Others simply hid their weapons and blended in with the local population," said Abdul Wahid Omarkehl, administrative chief in the Char Darah district in Kunduz province. "Now, they have just taken their weapons back out again and those who fled to neighboring provinces have come back after the end of the operation." It was the biggest offensive by the German military in Afghanistan so far. Around 300 German Bundeswehr troops, alongside 900 Afghan security forces, were seeking to push back Taliban-led insurgents in the northern province of Kunduz ahead of the country's presidential elections on August 20.
"When the operation began, the leaders of the Taliban fled to neighboring provinces and other areas. Others simply hid their weapons and blended in with the local population," said Abdul Wahid Omarkehl, administrative chief in the Char Darah district in Kunduz province.
"Now, they have just taken their weapons back out again and those who fled to neighboring provinces have come back after the end of the operation."
It was the biggest offensive by the German military in Afghanistan so far. Around 300 German Bundeswehr troops, alongside 900 Afghan security forces, were seeking to push back Taliban-led insurgents in the northern province of Kunduz ahead of the country's presidential elections on August 20.
Illusion and duplicity entrap the fixer, too, and spin his personal story into a political event. The Italians, who notoriously negotiate with hostage takers, persuade Karzai to exchange five Taliban prisoners for Mastrogiacomo and Ajmal. In the excitement of being freed, however, Mastrogiacomo fails to keep track of his fixer. The Taliban see an opportunity to recapture Ajmal and demand the release of two more prisoners. Karzai and his foreign minister, having freed the foreigner, then scramble to the moral high ground, refusing to negotiate with terrorists. Orders come down from Pakistan to kill Ajmal--on April 8, 2007--to make Karzai look bad in the eyes of his own people. Mullah Dadullah sends a video of the beheading. Ajmal's stricken father asks, "What kind of government doesn't protect its own citizens?" The answer is: a government that's bought and paid for and answerable to outsiders, a government that has neither the need nor the inclination to care for its citizens. As Karzai explains the matter, "The Italians built us a road."
Illusion and duplicity entrap the fixer, too, and spin his personal story into a political event. The Italians, who notoriously negotiate with hostage takers, persuade Karzai to exchange five Taliban prisoners for Mastrogiacomo and Ajmal. In the excitement of being freed, however, Mastrogiacomo fails to keep track of his fixer. The Taliban see an opportunity to recapture Ajmal and demand the release of two more prisoners. Karzai and his foreign minister, having freed the foreigner, then scramble to the moral high ground, refusing to negotiate with terrorists. Orders come down from Pakistan to kill Ajmal--on April 8, 2007--to make Karzai look bad in the eyes of his own people. Mullah Dadullah sends a video of the beheading.
Ajmal's stricken father asks, "What kind of government doesn't protect its own citizens?" The answer is: a government that's bought and paid for and answerable to outsiders, a government that has neither the need nor the inclination to care for its citizens. As Karzai explains the matter, "The Italians built us a road."
