US presses NATO to prepare takeover of Afghanistan military operations

[Judi Lynn]

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

US presses NATO to prepare takeover of Afghanistan military operations
POIANA BRASOV, Romania (AFP) - The United States pressed its NATO allies to begin military planning for possibly taking over command of operations in Afghanistan from US forces as early as next year.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld also was pushing the alliance to put NATO trainers on the ground in Iraq quickly, now that it has agreed on an expanded mission there, US officials said.

US ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns had said Tuesday that NATO defense ministers were likely at their informal meeting in Romania Wednesday to instruct their military authorities to report back in February with options on how to merge the NATO and US forces in Afghanistan.
(snip)

Germany immediately opposed any merger of US and NATO forces in the volatile central Asian nation, setting the stage at the two-day meeting for another fractious debate over the alliance's military role outside Europe.
(snip/...)

http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=30624

[venus]

1. Finally Bush is taking Wes Clark's advice. Rummy and his group

kept saying it couldn't be done. They're trying to steal Kerry's thunder.

[tlcandie]

2. They just want their troops out so they can put them

someplace else. I don't think they really care about Afghanistan anymore. They just want to move on to better targets. :+