In an effort to maintain a stronghold of its Afghanistan operations, NATO has recently hinted that it may deploy 3,400 more trainers for the Afghanistan army and police.
The decision came as the various defence chiefs serving in Afghanistan met in Quebec to strategise the Afghan mission, discussing the vital issues that confront the military forces in the war ravaged nation today.
US in a tough spot, only to deploy 1,000 trainers
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the US may fill some of those jobs despite difficulties finding available troops. The US has also recently announced an increase in the longetivity of the troop deployment period in Iraq and Afghanistan. The American troops would now stay for 15 instead of the earlier 12 month period in both these countries.
Since this has brought the US into a tough position, it probably would on be able to take responsibility for fewer than 1,000 of the training spots, while U.S. officials hope European nations will provide the rest.
Speaking to reporters on the plane returning to Washington from meeting with allies on the Afghanistan war effort, Robert Gates said
We would like to try and fill some of them, but quite frankly we’re having trouble identifying troops. We can fill some of them, but we don’t have the ability right now to fill all of them
Since the existing forces have already been subjected to saturated pressure and demand, Gates offered that the trainers would be part of new forces that would be deployed to Afghanistan. He further said about 60 percent would be for the Afghan police and 40 percent would be for the army.
Other issues
There also remain other hurdles which greatly hamper the success rate of the western mission in Afghanistan. The NATO-led coalition there still needs aircraft, medical equipment and military trainers to bolster its planned spring assault against the Taliban.
There also is the ever important issue of better coordination between the military and civilian activities, including the reconstruction efforts.
Long term commitment
It seems that the NATO led forces are here to stay in Afghanistan. Gates, after the Quebec meeting, assertively said that
it appears that the NATO allies are prepared to make a long-term commitment to the struggling nation. I think all of us anticipate that this is a years-long process the coalition members also understand that they have to establish a secure environment in Afghanistan in order for the other improvements to take hold.
While their motives may be noble, the various European nations involved in the military mission, especially Germany, France and Italy, have felt increasing pressure from the US in terms of filling the shortfalls in troops and equipment, as well as loosen restrictions on some forces who are limited in what they can do or where they can go.
However, the domestic pressure is getting fiercer for these leaders and they are debating on how long will they actually be staying in Afghanistan. If these nations decide to pull out their resources, the US led military operation would suffer serious setbacks.
Via: CNN
