During the past month, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has been arguing with NATO allies over the issue of the number of soldiers being sent to Afghanistan. The Amercan commander of forces in Afghanistan, General McNeill openly clashed with his allies not only over ther failure to send sufficient troops, but on the short term stay of those personnel. He complained about “minimalist forces” who are too few in number, and, for the most part only remain for a six month tour of duty. He compared the NATO effort to that of Americans who have at least a 15 month tour of duty. This allows, according to General McNeill, an opportunity to develop “relationships with the terrain, with the indigenous pepple and their leadership, and with the enemy.” The Americ an general was critical over the lack of training being given NATO forces for operations in Afghanistan.
It is now almost seven years since the Taliban was defeated and supposedly driven from Afghanistan. One would assume that over a seven year period the United States and its NATO allies would have been able to train an Afghan fighting force that could handle any insurgency. The goal should not be for American or NATO forces to learn about the terrain or form relationships with the local population, but this should be the task of Afghan soldiers. General McNeill complains over Canadian soldiers spending time in training activities rather than fighting. Perhaps, if more time was spent in training an Afghan army there would not be need for American and NATO forces in the country.
Admiral Mullen is now calling for reducing deployment time from 15 months to 12.
1 response so far ↓
1 Robert M. Stockmann // Feb 8, 2008 at 3:27 pm
NATO in severe trouble
NATO seems to be in severe trouble, internally. A weird background
image was sent on 07-FEB-2008 on NOVA TV (NED2) where Dutch Defence
Minister Middelkoop was reporting from Vilnius, Lithuania, near the
Soviet border, some 60 miles from Minsk. The background board showed
the following text :
07-08 II 2008
NATO Defence Ministers
—+— Ministres de la Defence
OTAN VILNIUS
Very strange. If NATO is spelled backwards on the same board, it
means the highest NATO chiefs are internally in conflict.
Does this read like : “The Devil is in Disarray” ? The highest
NATO chiefs are in need of mental health care? Also, why is the
date of the event spelled as :
07-08 II 2008
instead of 07-02-2008 or 07-FEB-2008, or Feb 7, 2008 ? Something is
very very foul here. Could Afghanistan slowly have become the Waterloo
for NATO? Check www.novatv.nl in a couple of hours or maybe tomorrow,
and you can replay the Interview with Dutch Defence Minister Middelkoop
to see that weird background image yourself.
http://www.novatv.nl/index.cfm?ln=nl&fuseaction=videoaudio.details&reportage_id=
5789
http://crashrecovery.org/nato.jpg
“Netherlands guilty of war violations in Afghanistan”
http://www.niburu.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=13074
29/01/08
The Netherlands are guilty of serious war violations in
Afghanistan. This claim was made by two lawyers who yesterday filed
a complaint against the Dutch government and the Chiefs of Staff
of the Dutch Armed Forces, as was reported by Dutch Newspaper Trouw.
The Dutch troops failed to adequately take into account the
presence of civilians.
Heavy infantry
According to lawyers Nico Steijnen and Meindert Stelling, who are
activists for the association of Lawyers for Peace, charges include a
battle in the district of Chora where between fifty and seventy
civilian casualties were made. Most of them, according independent
investigation, were slain by Dutch gun fire. The NATO commander in
the province of Uruzgan typified the use of heavy infantry by the
Dutch, as a violation of war. His superiors were, according ‘Trouw’,
of a different opinion.
Civilian Casualties
The Public Ministry has been conducting research into the June battle
in Chora, but, according the peace advocates, already in 2003 civilian
casualties were made by the Dutch in Afghanistan. The lawyers report in
the newspaper that NATO has given itself a carte blanche to execute the
leaders of the Taliban ‘outside the law’.
NATO Secretary-General
The declaration covers amongst others the Dutch Commander of the Armed
Forces Dick Berlijn, the Secretary-General of NATO Jaap de Hoop
Scheffer and the highest officials of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs
and Defense. By Wednesday, according ‘Trouw’, it will be known whether
the Public Prosecution Service will consider the pending complaints.
The lawyers, who previously tried to get the Netherlands prosecuted for
air strikes in former Yugoslavia, have already stated to proceed to the
court of Justice if the PPS dismisses the complaint. (Novum / kA)”
Interesting enough the NOVA broadcast of February 7, 2008, mentions
nothing about the above filed lawsuit. Instead the Chiefs of NATO
conducted a special meeting near the Soviet border and flash
a symbolic message across the Dutch TV air-waves
Leave a Comment