Afstan at "tipping point"

The NATO ISAF commander has a warning.

Afghanistan has reached "tipping point" and desperately needs more troops to help speed up reconstruction and development efforts, a senior British officer has warned.

General David Richards, Nato's top commander (he recently got a fourth star--his UK uniform actually has stars) in the strife-torn country, said Afghans could switch their allegiance to resurgent Taliban militants if there were no visible improvements in people's lives over the next year.

Gen Richards, who commands Nato's 32,000 troops in Afghanistan, said he would understand if a lot of ordinary Afghans felt let down by the West and began to support the Taliban again.

He said: "I would understand if a lot of Afghans, down in the south in particular, said to us: 'You're failing year after year in delivering the improvements which you have promised to us'...

"We're at, if you like, a tipping point. I think with a bit more effort and a bit more joined-up approach and spending our money more flexibly and freely with less ties attached to how we do it, then next year could be a lot better, and that's the point at which we are at today."..

I hope the General has some success in talking to Pakistan's President Musharraf but am not confident.

The commander of Nato troops in Afghanistan — with satellite pictures and videos of training camps in Pakistan — will rush to Islamabad, most probably today (Monday), for talks with President General Pervez Musharraf over the Taliban insurgency and the alleged presence of Mulla Omar in Quetta.

Britain’s Gen David Richards, who last week became commander of foreign troops across Afghanistan, has decided to meet General Musharraf after the captured Taliban fighters and failed suicide bombers allegedly confirmed that they were trained by the Pakistani intelligence service. The information includes an address in Quetta where Mulla Omar, the Taliban leader, has allegedly been hiding.

The Nato Headquarters had confirmed that its commander in Afghanistan is to travel to Pakistan in the coming days to hold “full and frank” discussions with President General Pervez Musharraf over the Taliban insurgency. But, it said, it would not give a date for his visit to Islamabad for security reasons.

Earlier, ‘The Sunday Times’ claimed the British general will confront Pakistan’s president over his country’s support for the Taliban. Among the evidence amassed is the address of the Taliban leader in a Pakistani city...

Agencies add: The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) dismissed the newspaper’s claim that Richards would “confront” Musharraf about the insurgency and try to persuade him to rein in his military intelligence service, alleged by some to be involved in training Taliban.

“It would be entirely inaccurate to describe the visit to Pakistan as a confrontation,” Nato civilian representative Mark Laity said. “The visit is intended to work at developing cooperation between the two nations on the military side. Not in any sense are we telling Pakistan what to do — that would be entirely inappropriate,” he added...