London, August 08: NATO needs more troops in Afghanistan if the mission is to succeed, the alliance’s new secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Friday.
Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told the BBC that NATO has made progress fighting Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan, partly because the number of soldiers there was increased.
“I think we need more troops,” said Rasmussen, who took over as NATO chief from Jaap de Hoop Scheffer earlier this month. “I have seen progress in the south, not least thanks to the increase in the number of troops. So definitely the number of troops matters.”
U.S. officials are considering whether to ask for more troops as the prepare a report on the war in Afghanistan. A draft assessment called for speeding up the training of Afghan soldiers and police — a job that would require more foreign trainers.
Rasmussen warned Friday that the solution for Afghanistan could not rest in the military alone, but also with providing “the Afghan people with better life opportunities.”.
“This will be at the core of our new strategy,” he said. “In a few weeks’ time our commanders in the field will provide us with an updated assessment of the situation. Based on that, we will take the necessary decisions to proceed.”
Last month, Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Miliband told NATO allies that efforts must be made to talk to rank-and-file Taliban members at the same time as troops are pursuing hard-line fundamentalists committed to global terrorism.
He said the Taliban should be given the chance “to leave the path of confrontation with the government.”
A British newspaper, meanwhile, has published an interview with Britain’s next military chief in which he is quoted as saying that the mission in Afghanistan could last up to 40 years.
Gen. Sir David Richards said the 9,000 British troops deployed in Afghanistan should only be needed for the medium term, according to the interview in the Saturday edition of The Times of London.
But Britain “will be committed to Afghanistan in some manner — development, governance, security sector reform — for the next 30 to 40 years,” he was quoted as saying.
Richards becomes Britain’s chief of general staff Aug. 28. There has been a surge in the number of NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan in recent months.
—Agencies