NATO Defense Ministers Support McChrystal Afghanistan Strategy

After listening to a behind-closed-doors assessment of the situation in Afghanistan by Gen. McChrystal, whose appearance in Bratislava had not been publicized in advance, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen announced that the NATO defense ministers, from 28 different countries, found the argument for a counter-insurgency put forward by the senior U.S. and alliance commander a persuasive one. According to Reuters, after explaining that the assembled ministers did not see the elimination of individual terrorists as the principal means by which the problems in Afghanistan can be solved. Mr Rasmussen added:

What we need is a much broader strategy which stabilises the whole Afghan society. We should reinforce the interaction between our military effort and civilian reconstruction and development. Investing in Afghan capacity now means being able to do less later. Our mission will end when the Afghans are able to take responsibility for their own country. I have made it very clear to ministers that this cannot be done for free. We will need more training teams, we will need more money to sustain the Afghan forces

The New York Times notes that the strategy of targeting individual terrorists is one advocated most strongly by U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden. Whilst supporting Gen.McChrystal's suggested strategy there was no confirmation from the meeting that the NATO ministers agreed with the general's view that extra troops need to be sent to Afghanistan. The general has already submitted a request for those extra troops and both NATO and the Obama administration are currently considering whether to commit those additional resources. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was in Bratislava. But, in acknowledging the support that Gen. McChrystal received from the meeting of ministers, he refused to comment on whether the White House was set to send more troops to Afghanistan. He said instead that he was encouraged by the apparent willingness of some allies to commit more personnel to the eight-year-long conflict in Central Asia and was in Slovakia in a strictly "listening mode". Washington is not expected to decide on extra troop deployments for another two-three weeks. However the U.S. government, and indeed the governments of other NATO countries, will quite possibly heed the words of Kai Eide, the United Nations special representative for Afghanistan. The Associated Press quotes Mr Eide as saying that "additional international troops will be needed in the future". He reportedly also said that the "enterprise" in Afghanistan is not one which the U.S. should be expected to tackle alone. By the end of 2009 there will be some 104,000 allied troops in Afghanistan, 65,000 of them from the U.S. Gen. McChrystal wishes to see as many as 80,000 more U.S. troops deployed to support his counter-insurgency. Another key element of the general's overall strategy is, says Reuters, to see the Afghan army and police force, when combined, 400,000 strong. Currently the plan is for that combined force, presumably they would operate separately, to eventually be 230,000 strong. Many of the extra troops Gen.McChrystal wants to see sent to Afghanistan would likely be involved in training the Afghan army and police rather than actually fighting the Taliban and/or al-Qaeda. Amongst the NATO defense ministers who have spoken about the possibility of sending more troops to Afghanistan there appears to be a reluctance to make any commitment until there is a stable and legitimate government in Kabul. The U.K. has signaled that it will send 500 extra troops to Afghanistan, but only if the U.S. and other members of NATO deploy more troops too. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the U.S., Adm. Mike Mullen, and U.S. commander in the Middle East, Gen. David Petraeus, have, reports the New York Times, confirmed that they back the overall strategy that Gen McChrystal wishes to pursue in Afghanistan.