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| Afghanistan |
| Straw cautious as usual on more peacekeepers |
| 2002-02-16 |
The international community wanted to see a fully national Afghan army and a national police service trained up as soon as possible, Straw said. There would be "intensive discussions" about what, where and how ISAF was expanded after Britain finished its lead nation role in April. "I recognise the strong case Chairman Karzai makes for that (expansion) but we have to make sure if we are going to put troops elsewhere we do so in secure, safe conditions where everybody understands their role," Straw said. Earlier, the foreign secretary met Afghan Foreign Minister Dr Abdullah Abdullah, at a meeting in which they discussed the possibility of Turkey, the only Muslim member of Nato, taking over the lead of ISAF when Britain steps down. Straw is characteristically euroweenie cautious. Victory comes to the bold, and that ain't him. Glad nothing crashed into Big Ben or the Tower - the UK would still be considering its options, though probably a strongly worded letter would have been sent to someone by now. Karzai is facing the ghastly reality that the majority of those with guns within the country don't want stability and order, as that would detract from their power. Since Karzai himself has veritable buckets of lip service backed by negligible genuine support, he's only a figurehead. The only way his power can be maintained is with outside troops - and even with them only long enough to allow him to forge genuine alliances with the real powers within the country. Don't even bother looking for the Grand Loya Jirga, now scheduled for the sweet by and by. If by some accident it did happen it would be because one or two of the warlords - and one of them would be Hekmatyar - has confidence that he has enough support to take over the operation, at which time Karzai can expect to sleep wid da fishes. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |