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| Britain |
| NATO allies scolded over combat duties |
| 2009-02-04 |
| BRITAIN scolded its NATO allies today for not stepping forward to share combat duties in Afghanistan, warning that there could be no freeloaders in the fight against Taliban-led insurgents. "An alliance worth its name must be one that shares the burden of membership equally amongst its members, because there can be no freeloading when it comes to collective security," British Defence Secretary John Hutton said. "Volunteering, not waiting to be asked, must be the hallmark of a proper relationship between the transatlantic members of this alliance," he told ambassadors at North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) headquarters in Brussels. NATO is embarked on its biggest and most-ambitious operation ever trying to spread the influence of the weak Afghan government across the strife-torn country and help foster reconstruction. But the Taliban and its cohorts, including al-Qaeda, drug lords and criminal gangs, have been waging an increasingly tenacious insurgency and seriously undermining NATO's goals. Britain, Canada, the United States and the Netherlands - supported by Australia - have troops on the frontline of that fight in southern Afghanistan, but other allies have proved reluctant to put their forces more in harm's way. "Afghanistan underlines the need for NATO's institutions today to develop and sustain a wartime culture - urgency, ambition, a can-do attitude - rather than a peacetime mentality of bureaucracy, process, minimalism," Mr Hutton said. "Failure in Afghanistan is unthinkable. The consequences would be far reaching," he warned the ambassadors, according to an extract of his speech. "Failure would be an open invitation to any would-be aggressor - state or non-state - to test our resolve and try their luck. It simply cannot be allowed to happen," he said. He also urged the Afghan government to do more to fight corruption. "Military gains cannot be consolidated nor political progress advanced without effective governance at every level: district, local, regional and national," he said. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #2 MOSCOW-BASED ANALYST PAVEL FELGEHAUE > As per Kyrgyzstan's just-announced closure of the MANAS US Air Base, RUSSIA DESIRES FOR THE US TO RECOGNIZE ITS AUTHORITY IN CENTRAL ASIA [aka NO US MILBASES OR MILFORS WITHIN RUSSIA'S SPHERE OF INFLUENCE IN ASIA]. Artic > The MANAS US Base in Kyrgyzstan was more SYMBOLIC, NOT PRACTICAL ala US-NATO Afghan re-supply like AMER's ALSO-CLOSED UZBEKISTAN BASE. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-02-04 22:56 |
| #1 That's worked so well before. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2009-02-04 16:32 |