Afghanistan Conference - War-Weary NATO Members Look for Morale Boost

[FarCenter]

Thursday's Afghanistan conference in London saw pledges of money for Taliban defectors and promises of more troops for Afghan President Hamid Karzai. But with the prospects for success vague at best, the psychological impact on the war-weary NATO countries was more important than any decisions made at the summit.

Hamid Karzai made an unintentionally comical remark at the beginning of Thursday's eight-hour Afghanistan conference in London. The Afghan president said that he was certain that the conference would be "another very important meeting" for the future of Afghanistan. Karzai's words brought a smile to the faces of some members of his audience, because it was a reminder of how many Afghanistan conferences had already taken place during eight years of war -- and of the fact that the grand promises of these summits usually petered out afterwards.


Nevertheless, the meeting's host, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, set the bar high. In his opening remarks, he spoke of a "decisive time" and said that the conference marked the beginning of "Afghanization" -- a term used to describe the gradual transfer of responsibility from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to the government in Kabul. The new Afghan security forces would assume responsibility for the country's security "district by district and province by province," Brown said.

Karzai said that he expects the Afghan government to be standing on its own feet by 2014. Until then at the very least -- and this was the second message of the London conference -- international troops will have to remain in the country.

For this reason, it is premature to talk about the prospect of withdrawal. Instead, the meeting was just another day full of calls to stay the course. One of the summit's goals was to counter the fatalism that has taken hold in the war-weary ISAF nations. The attendees, around 70 foreign ministers and representatives of international organizations, confirmed the "strategic new beginning" which had been sketched out in the days leading up to the meeting and which is supposed to bring about a turning point in the war after a bloody 2009. The mood was "hopeful," members of the German delegation said.

The core of the new strategy involves reaching out to Taliban fighters. A new €360 million ($500 million) program is designed to encourage ordinary foot soldiers to lay down their weapons and accept civilian jobs instead. The strategy is based on the idea that three-quarters of the Taliban are not religious fundamentalists, but simply underemployed young men. The goal of the internationally financed job creation scheme is to lure them away from the battlefield. But opinions are divided over the effectiveness of such programs.

<SNIP>http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,674723,00.html

[Fumesucker]

1. It was predictable in 2001 that this would happen..

But of course anyone who correctly predicted the course of the Afghan war in 2001 is by definition not a "Serious" person and will not be listened to by TBTB or the M$M.

Only people who have been consistently wrong are listened to in the corridors of power.