Afghans Need to Know Coalition There to Stay: NATO

[tekisui]

Source: CTV.ca

The Canadian Press

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- The large number of NATO deaths this month in southern Afghanistan has prompted renewed debate in western nations over the future of the mission, but the commander of international troops battling the Taliban in southern Afghanistan says it's critical Afghans know that NATO forces are there to stay.

The Canadian government has already announced an end to its military mission in Afghanistan at the end of 2011, and the Netherlands has said that Dutch troops will leave Afghanistan beginning in July 2010.

A spate of recent British deaths in Helmand province has spurred renewed debate on that country's continued participation in the war, and U.S. President Barack Obama has so far come up empty-handed in his appeal to other nations for more combat troops for Afghanistan.

Nearly eight years after the Taliban were toppled from power, the security situation has worsened and the U.S. decision to more than double its troops in the central Asian nation appears to some to be a last stand. The U.S. secretary of state has said there is only about a year to show visible signs of progress before the American public decides the war in unwinnable.

But Brig.-Gen. Mart de Kruif , commander of the NATO's Regional Command South, which includes the insurgent hotbeds of Kandahar and Helmand provinces, says regardless of the decisions of any one country, Afghans must know that the International Security Assistance Force will remain until the country is stabilized.

"It is important that the Afghans know that we are here to stay," de Kruif told The Canadian Press in a recent interview.

more: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090729/NATO_Afghans_090729/20090729?hub=World

[HeresyLives]

1. No, they need to know we're leaving!

[timeforpeace]

2. Soviets stayed, what, 10 years? Longer? Why the hell do they need to know we will stay?