German General Says NATO Mission Has 'Failed'

[xchrom]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,790539,00.html

It was 10 years ago that the United States, together with its NATO allies, marched into Afghanistan to put an end to Taliban rule and begin the hunt for al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden. A decade later, the terrorist leader is dead. But, says Harald Kujat, former general inspector of the German military, the mission has been a failure.

"The mission fulfilled the political aim of showing solidarity with the United States," Kujat told the German daily Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. "But if you measure progress against the goal of stabilizing a country and a region, then the mission has failed."

Kujat said that it was ignored for too long that "the opponent was fighting a military battle and we needed to do the same." In reference to claims from German political leaders, among others, he said "the argument that it was a stabilization mission was maintained for too long." The result, he said, is that soldiers were not given what they needed in order to effectively fight the enemy.

Kujat is hardly the first to criticize the Afghanistan war. But his words carry weight in Germany. He was a leading planner of the German mission to Afghanistan and served as general inspector of the German military -- the Bundeswehr's highest-ranking soldier -- from 2000 to 2002. Part of his job included advising both the German government and the Defense Ministry on military matters.




*** a Pox on the powers that be for this horrifying waste of Blood & Treasure.

[LiberalFighter]

1. There were others that opposed going into Afghanistan

because they knew it couldn't be stabilized. Now where did they get that idea? From Russia's success there? Americans (people) can be so stupid.

Even the American Revolutionary War took 8 years and the terrain and settlement of citizens were much better for fighting a war than in Afghanistan.

[tuckessee]

2. That's a general for you.

Stating ten years after the fact what the average schmuck in the street knew from the get go. Give that man some more scrambled eggs.