US envoy: European allies strongly supportive of Obama’s Afghan plan

more images

more images

US envoy: Allies strongly support Afghan plan

BRUSSELS — America’s NATO allies have been strongly supportive of the administration’s plans for the war in Afghanistan, President Barack Obama’s envoy said Thursday, though some nations won’t yet commit to contributing more of their own forces.

Richard C. Holbrooke, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan said he expects European governments soon to contribute more forces to join the 30,000 fresh U.S. troops that will be deployed to Afghanistan under Obama’s new strategy.

“We have been very gratified by the strong support of our European allies for President Obama’s policy,” Holbrooke told journalists. He spoke before a two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers that opens later Thursday. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will brief the ministers on Friday.

Obama’s plan calls for the dispatch of 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, but includes assurances that some of them will begin withdrawing in July 2011.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Wednesday that the allies will contribute at least 5,000 more troops to the war effort, “and probably a few thousand more.”

European countries have been reluctant to add large numbers of soldiers to a war that often looks unwinnable, and to support an Afghan government tainted by corruption and election fraud. Some leaders are waiting for an international conference on Afghanistan in London next month before promising any more troops.

“I understand that the war is unpopular,” Holbrooke said. “It’s a long way off and there’s the legacy of Iraq and Vietnam.”

But unlike al-Qaida, the enemy in neither Iraq nor Vietnam posed any direct danger to the security of allied nations, Holbrooke noted.

“Our core objectives in Afghanistan have not changed, but resources to achieve them have been increased,” he said. Success will depend on close cooperation between all 43 troop-contributing nations and countries such as Japan, which provide development aid to the government in Kabul, he said.

Fogh Rasmussen did not specify where the additional 5,000 alliance soldiers would come from, or how many would come from Europe. So far, most of the pledges of additional troops have been small numbers from small nations. The largest contributors — Britain, France and Germany — are holding off on new troop pledges, waiting for an Afghanistan conference in London planned for late January.

Italy’s defense minister said Thursday his country will send about 1,000 new troops. But the Turkish Foreign Ministry said that, while it is considering increasing its training of Afghan security forces, it will not participate in combat operations.

The U.S. now has 71,000 troops in Afghanistan, while other NATO members and allies collectively have 38,000 troops there. With the reinforcements, the international forces will grow to more than 140,000.

The Afghan army has about 94,000 troops, and plans to expand to 134,000. The Afghan police number about 93,000 members.

The U.S. and Afghan forces face an estimated 25,000 Taliban insurgents.