President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday he was unworried by U.S. plans to cut troop numbers in Afghanistan, and U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld played down concerns about NATO states' willingness to fill the gap.Under pressure to cut U.S. troop commitments overseas in the face of difficulties in Iraq, Rumsfeld on Monday ordered a reduction in the number of American troops in Afghanistan to about 16,500 from the current 19,000 by next spring.
| That's the Roooters spin, and nicely done. There is no pressure to cut troops, there's a recognition that 1) NATO said it would help but is dithering, so we'll put a little pressure on them, and 2) the Afghan military is slowly improving. And Roooters goes on to admit it in the very next paragraph: |
Karzai told a joint news conference with Rumsfeld in Kabul he was not worried by the move, which he had discussed with the U.S. defence secretary and other senior U.S. officials. "Afghanistan has the total assurance of the United States that it will remain committed in helping in all spheres of life, including in the matter related to security," he said. "The reduction does not mean a reduction in the actual force that one would need to combat terrorism. We are assured of the continued United States' support, so I don't think it will have an impact on the situation on the ground."
Rumsfeld told reporters on his way to Asia that the U.S. military would "continue to do the heavy lifting" in Afghanistan even as NATO boosts its separate International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from 9,000 to 15,000 troops.
In Kabul with Karzai, Rumsfeld reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to helping Afghanistan maintain security. "We will be continuing as an active participant in NATO's role in Afghanistan, as well as our individual role with regard to counterterrorism efforts and training and equipping of Afghan security forces," he told the news conference. "Together with your security forces and other coalition forces we will continue to be focussed on rooting out the Taliban and al Qaeda that still exist in causing difficulties."
Asked how confident he was about NATO states filling the gap, Rumsfeld made reference to questions in the Dutch parliament. "The fact that one country is
On Monday, the Dutch cabinet delayed until Thursday a decision on sending more troops as part of the NATO expansion amid mounting concern about security after stepped-up violence by the Taliban and their militant allies. The Dutch parliament must vote on the troop deployment, but is not expected to debate the subject until January.
The centrist D66, junior partners in the Dutch ruling coalition, has threatened to vote against the mission, and most opposition parties in parliament are also opposed.
| Because they don't want to put troops out in the field to fight, since they might get shot at. |
On Tuesday, the U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations, Jean-Marie Guehenno, said it was very important U.S. troop cuts were covered by NATO deployments, but there was no reason to believe there would be a gap.