Afstan: A long haul indeed

The US takes a line similar to the Brits . This is something our own government is reluctant to discuss squarely--excerpts from two stories about the Edinburgh meeting of NATO defence ministers of countries with troops in the south, plus one about NATO's Secretary General:

1) Gates shifts tactics with NATO allies

The Bush administration has decided to tone down its appeals to NATO allies for more troops and other aid in the fight against the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday...

[US Defense Secretary] Gates has been pressing for months — without success so far — to get 16 more helicopters into southern Afghanistan [disgraceful - MC; meanwhile some copters are being rented] to relieve a U.S. helicopter unit that will be leaving soon.

Gates also has pressed to fill other needs, including 3,500 NATO trainers for the Afghan police as well as a minimum of three battalions of ground troops...

"There was a strong sense that the civilian side, run by all of our governments and by the U.N., needs now to be elevated and expanded and be made as strategically purposeful as what we see on the military side," Burns [undersecretary of state for political affairs] said...

Asked what he foresaw as the state of U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan five years from now, Gates said he expected it would extend beyond that, but in smaller numbers than today...

"The worry that we have and the care that we would have to take that we have not faced in Iraq is, we don't want to re-empower warlords and we don't want to create independent militias," he [Gates] added. He then emphasized that this was a Karzai effort and that the Afghan president is setting limits such as barring al-Qaida members from the reconciliation move.

"What we are interested in is: Can we detach local areas and perhaps even some Taliban leaders from the insurgency and get them to reconcile with the government?" he said.

2) NATO-led countries to boost Afghan reconstruction

Countries with troops deployed in southern Afghanistan agreed on Friday on the need to build on military gains by boosting reconstruction and improving the lives of Afghans.

Following an eight-nation meeting, hosted by Britain's Defence Secretary Des Browne, top U.S. officials were upbeat about recent successes, including the recapture of Musa Qala from the Taliban, but said progress had to be broadened...

He [Gates] hoped that within five years the Afghan army, which took the lead in the Musa Qala operation but still required heavy backing from British and American troops and helicopters, would be able to do the lion's share of the work.

"I think it's not an unrealistic hope," he said, adding that the Taliban couldn't win militarily, as Musa Qala had shown.

"The key is ... how do we come in behind that with the kind of civilian support, police support that, once we've driven them out, keeps them out [emphasis added]," he said...

Friday's meeting, which drew together the Netherlands, Canada, Estonia, Romania, Denmark and Australia as well as Britain and the United States, was designed to look at ways of sharing the burden in Afghanistan, where around 40,000 troops operate under the leadership of NATO...

Browne, who recently returned from a trip to Afghanistan, appeared less buoyed by the talks, but was still pleased the discussion had drawn agreement on the need to share burdens...

"But...I'm a politician and I'm a realist and I understand the dynamics of alliances that are made up of countries with different political make-ups and governments of different types.

"Some of the governments are there as minority governments [emphasis added] -- they have political will but not the political process."

Canada said that while some within the alliance might not be able to provide troops, they could help out in other ways.

"There are certain things that could be done that may be of a less military nature but would free up (others)... enabling them to continue in their efforts without some of the stress and strain," Defence Minister Peter MacKay told reporters...

3) NATO chief says group will stay in Afghanistan

TOKYO - There are signs of improvement in Afghanistan but NATO will not pull its troops out of the country anytime soon, the organization's leader said Friday.

However, he denied NATO is looking to become an international police group. NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said while the situation remains complex in Afghanistan, improvements are being made. "I assure you that reconstruction and development is going on," de Hoop Scheffer said at a news conference.

"Let's not see the picture totally blur by the Taliban making roadside bombs."

He added, however, a withdrawal from Afghanistan in the near future is out of the question.

"Afghanistan is not a commitment that you enter into for two or three years," he said.

"Developing that nation will take a generation, or generations."..

Very relevant update:

Soldiers 'hail success of talks with the Taliban'