In this bulletin:

• NATO chief sees Afghan insurgency smashed by 2009
• Canadian reservists awarded Afghan medal; 'made country proud': general
• Afghanistan is on the road to stability: NATO
• Gates Calls on NATO Members to Live Up to Afghan Aid Pledges
• U.S. launches artillery into Pakistan
• Suicide bombing attacks NATO forces in S. Afghanistan
• Taliban prepare for spring offensive in Afghan south
• Afghan gov.: Foreign fighters in south
• Afghan governor reveals insurgency plans
• Withdrawal from Musa Qala: Taliban reject talks offer
• Ivanov urges coop on Afghan drug war
• America is doped up in Colombia for a bad trip in Afghanistan
• NATO meeting ends in Seville with no more Spanish troops for Afghanistan
• Doubt over Afghan commitment of Gulf & European countries
• Govt asked to review Afghan policy (Daily Times)
• Afghan situation poses global challenge: Khurshid Kasuri
• Top U.S. diplomatic analyst says Pakistan falling short on war on terror
• US striving to strengthen Afghan forces
• NATO commander says too few troops in Afghanistan

NATO chief sees Afghan insurgency smashed by 2009

MUNICH, Germany, Feb 10 (Reuters) - NATO expects to have smashed most of the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan within the next two years but will need to keep troops there after 2009, the alliance's chief said on Saturday.

"In 2009, we should see Afghanistan on the road to peace with the back of the resistance broken -- but with undoubtedly a NATO military presence on the ground," Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a security conference in Munich.

"I hope in 2009 that we see an Afghanistan government that is better able to take the country into its own hands, which is what we hope for," he added.

However the scale of the challenge facing the alliance was underlined as Afghan national security adviser Zalmai Rassoul told the same meeting his country was facing a resurgent Taliban and an influx of foreign fighters.

"While we have come far, we are standing at a crossroads in 2007 between moving forward along a democratic path and letting it slip from our grasp," said Rassoul.

NATO commanders have in the past forecast the imminent end of the insurgency. But with more than 4,000 people killed in violence last year, 2005 was the bloodiest since U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban Islamist government in 2001.

The United States says the next year will be vital in ending the conflict, while other allies stress that NATO troops will need to be there for the long haul.

Concerns the alliance is getting bogged down came to the fore in Italy on Saturday after Defence Minister Arturo Parisi stunned pacifists in Romano Prodi's coalition by saying the government may not cut its presence in Afghanistan until 2011.

Leftists in the government warned they could be provoked into leaving the coalition over the comments, but Prodi repeated his commitment to the mission where Italy has 1,900 troops.

De Hoop Scheffer renewed his call on NATO allies to come forward with reinforcements to the alliance-led International Security Assistance Force, whose numbers he said had swelled to 35,000 largely because of recent U.S. deployments.

"The priority now is to deploy sufficient forces," he said, calling for such moves to be accompanied by a greater effort to bring aid and reconstruction to the impoverished country.

The United States urged allies this week to send more troops to Afghanistan to crush an expected upsurge in Taliban violence, saying the next few weeks would be pivotal in the battle.

But European nations remained reluctant to commit further reinforcements, with Germany questioning whether more were needed and putting the emphasis on finding the right balance between counter-insurgency and reconstruction efforts.

While new Pentagon chief Robert Gates stepped back from public criticism of allies at a meeting of defence ministers in Seville on Thursday, Republican presidential hopeful John McCain pulled no punches at the Munich conference.

"The international community still falls far short in meeting its prior pledges and in committing the resources Afghanistan needs to avoid failure," he said.

"If NATO does not prevail in Afghanistan, it is difficult to imagine the alliance undertaking another 'hard security' operation -- in or out of area -- and its credibility would suffer a grievous blow," he warned.

NATO commander says too few troops in Afghanistan

MUNICH, Germany (AFP) - NATO's top commander has said there were not enough international troops in Afghanistan to control the border and maintain the steady military presence needed to underpin reconstruction efforts.

US Army General Bantz Craddock, the supreme allied commander, acknowledged that allies were sceptical of the need for more troops at a recently concluded defence ministers meeting in Seville.

"Right now commanders are finding, without adequate forces available, they have to move from one (place) to the other, and they are continually shifting around," he said.

"We must maintain presence, because with presence the Taliban does not come back," he said, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an international security conference on Saturday.

Craddock recently concluded a reassessment of requirements of the 35,000-strong NATO-led International Security Force in Afghanistan.

He said he found that the allies had not provided all the forces they had previously promised and that more troops were needed to control border areas and protect reconstruction efforts.

The general declined to discuss the specifics of the new requirements but NATO officials have said it calls for two additional battalions plus support forces, helicopters and transport planes.

He said allies made some offers at Seville but not enough to fill the new requirements, adding he was confident that there would be increased contributions in the weeks ahead.

"I think there are adequate forces right now to effect security," he said. "There are not the forces to do the other things that need to be done concurrently."

"We have talked repeatedly you must clear, you must hold, you must build. We need full sourcing to be able to clear and hold," he said.

Asked what Pakistan was being asked to do to control its border with Afghanistan, Craddock said, "I think we may see some changes along the border."

"I received indications that they do feel there is inadequate control," he said. "They told me they are taking measures to address this and provide greater control."

"We're watching closely, we're looking, we'll be supportive where we can, but we will be insistent," he said.

Afghanistan is on the road to stability: NATO

Updated Sun. Feb. 11 2007 - Associated Press

MUNICH, Germany -- NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Saturday he thinks the back of the insurgency in Afghanistan will be "broken" and that the country will be on the road to a long-term peace by 2009.

There have been warnings by commanders of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan that Taliban guerrillas may mount a spring offensive from their winter-safe havens in neighboring Pakistan.

But De Hoop Scheffer said the tide of the fight will turn.

"In 2009 I think we should see Afghanistan on the road to long-term peace and stability with the back of the resistance broken," he told a gathering the world's top security officials.

Afghanistan's neighbor Pakistan is of key importance to the fight, he said.

"Pakistan is vital to our success in Afghanistan," De Hoop Scheffer said. "A military dialogue with Pakistan should now be teamed up with a political dialogue."

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) noted that fighting in 2006 was bloodier than ever.

"If NATO does not prevail in Afghanistan, it is difficult to imagine the alliance undertaking another 'hard security' operation ... Its credibility would suffer a grievous blow," McCain said at the conference.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged NATO and the European Union to work together in Afghanistan, saying this was "crucial for success" of efforts to defeat Taliban guerrillas and bring stability to the nation.

"In Afghanistan our alliance is being particularly tested," Merkel said. "It is indisputable that the Taliban are testing our determination."

The NATO-led force has about 35,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, and commanders have expressed confidence they are able to defeat any Taliban military effort in the coming months. But they have complained that, in the past, battlefield successes were not followed up by reconstruction aid to help rebuild regions devastated by the fighting.

Earlier this month, the EU Commission proposed a new $780 million package for Afghanistan to focus on health, justice and rural development over the next four years.

Merkel said that military stabilizing measures have to be coordinated with civilian measures. But she acknowledged the mission "is more difficult than we originally thought" when NATO forces were first deployed to Afghanistan three years ago.

Gates Calls on NATO Members to Live Up to Afghan Aid Pledges

Sunday, February 11, 2007 – AP/Fox news

Munich - Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in his first speech as Pentagon chief, made an urgent call Sunday for NATO allies to live up to their promises to supply military and economic aid for Afghanistan, saying that failing to do so would be shameful.

And in a carefully worded rebuke, he used both humor and some pointed jabs to blunt Russia's sharp attack against U.S. foreign policy a day earlier.

In remarks before a prestigious security forum, Gates dismissed as dated Cold War rhetoric Russian President Vladimir Putin's charge Saturday that the United States is seeding a new arms race.

A day after Putin blamed U.S. policy for inciting other countries to seek nuclear weapons to defend themselves, Gates responded: "As an old Cold Warrior, one of yesterday's speeches almost filled me with nostalgia for a less complex time. Almost."

Then, as the audience chuckled, he added, however, that he has accepted Putin's invitation to visit Russia. "We all face many common problems and challenges that must be addressed in partnership with other countries, including Russia," said Gates. "One Cold War was quite enough."

The bulk of his speech was devoted to the future of the NATO alliance, and the need to work together to defend the trans-Atlantic community against any security threats.

He struck a familiar theme — one he pressed during a NATO defense ministers meeting this week, when he urged the allies to follow through on their promises to help secure and rebuild Afghanistan.

"It is vitally important that the success Afghanistan has achieved not be allowed to slip away through neglect or lack of political will or resolve," Gates said. Failure to muster a strong military effort combined with economic development and a counternarcotics plan "would be a mark of shame," he said.

Gates also sketched out the challenges ahead, from Iran's nuclear ambitions and the situation in the Middle East to China's recent anti-satellite tests and Russia's arms sales.

Just eight weeks on the job, Gates used the conference and a NATO gathering earlier in the week to introduce himself to the international community and meet privately with a number of defense ministers.

Delivered amid growing tensions between the U.S. and Russia and to an audience including many Iraq and Afghanistan war skeptics, the speech was the first public test of Gates' diplomatic skills. It came at a venue that at times had been dominated by his more bombastic predecessor, Donald H. Rumsfeld.

So as he neared the end of his remarks, Gates made a deliberate move to separate himself from Rumsfeld and any lingering discord.

In the run-up to the Iraq war, Rumsfeld sharply criticized nations opposed to the conflict — specifically France and Germany — referring to them as "Old Europe."

Without mentioning Rumsfeld's name, Gates said some people have tried to divide the allies into categories — such as east and west, north versus south. "I'm even told that some have even spoken in terms of 'old' Europe versus 'new,'" Gates said. "All of these characterizations belong in the past."

U.S. launches artillery into Pakistan

Bagram (AP) - Asserting a right to self-defense, American forces in eastern Afghanistan have launched artillery rounds into Pakistan to strike Taliban fighters who attack remote U.S. outposts, the commander of U.S. forces in the region said Sunday.

The skirmishes are politically sensitive because Pakistan's government, regarded by the Bush administration as an important ally against Islamic extremists, has denied that it allows U.S. forces to strike inside its territory.

The use of the largely ungoverned Waziristan area of Pakistan as a haven for Taliban and al-Qaida fighters has become a greater irritant between Washington and Islamabad since Pakistan put in place a peace agreement there in September that was intended to stop cross-border incursions.

Army Col. John W. Nicholson, commander of the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, said in an Associated Press interview that rather than halt such incursions, the peace deal has led to a substantial increase.

Pakistani border forces, which had been active in stopping Taliban incursions into Afghanistan as recently as last spring, stopped offensive actions against them once the peace deal took effect, he said. "That did relax some of the pressure on the enemy," Nicholson said.

Members of Nicholson's brigade, which is based at Fort Drum, N.Y., recently were told that instead of going home this month after a yearlong tour, they will stay for an extra four months, until June.

Nicholson told the Army's vice chief of staff, Gen. Richard Cody, that this news hit soldiers and their families hard, but that they are now adjusting well. Cody is traveling in Afghanistan.

The brigade of about 3,500 soldiers is being kept in Afghanistan because senior commanders decided they needed more forces to deal with an anticipated Taliban offensive this spring. The offensive is expected to focus not only on eastern Afghanistan but also the south, where the traditional Taliban stronghold of Kandahar is seen as a prized target. NATO forces operate in that area.

Nicholson described the fighting along the border, particularly in Afghanistan's Paktika and Khost provinces, as intense. In some cases, he said, the Taliban have crossed the border at night, using wire cutters to breach the perimeter of small U.S. outposts, "trying to get hand grenades into our bunkers."

"I mean we're talking World War I type of stuff," Nicholson said. "These are some very sharp, intense fights" initiated by an enemy he described as resilient and undeterred by superior U.S. firepower. "They'll keep coming back," he said.

When Taliban forces on the Pakistan side of the border fire on U.S. outposts on the Afghan side, the Americans are equipped to quickly pinpoint the launch location using radar and then strike back with artillery, he said.

"We do not allow the enemy to fire with impunity on our soldiers, and we have the inherent right of self defense," he said, speaking by video teleconference from his headquarters at Jalalabad air field. "Even if those fires are coming from across the border (in Pakistan), we have the right to defense ourselves, and we exercise that right." He added later, "We do fire missions across the border."

Nicholson responded to questions from an AP reporter after the commander spoke by video teleconference with Cody.

Cody had planned to fly to Jalalabad to meet with Nicholson and other commanders but poor weather forced him to remain at Bagram, the main American air base in Afghanistan.

Nicholson told Cody that U.S. forces have made important strides this winter in persuading local Afghans to side with the U.S.-backed government and to be less accommodating to the Taliban. The Taliban have been resurgent in some parts of the country after being driven from power by U.S. forces in 2001.

Nicholson's area of responsibility includes the border provinces from Nuristan to Paktika. He said his forces are not required to get approval from Pakistan before responding to an attack. But he emphasized that efforts are made to warn Pakistani government forces along the border to clear the intended target area before U.S. artillery is launched.

"We make every effort to communicate with the Pakistan military," he said, Nicholson said the computers used to target U.S. artillery are programmed with the map coordinates of Pakistani border posts.

"If a fire mission is being called that would impact on a Pakistan border post, we typically will not shoot — we will not shoot that mission," he said.

The United States has given radios to Pakistan border posts so they can communicate with U.S. forces in Afghanistan, he said. If U.S. troops are unable to contact them directly before launching an artillery assault, an illumination round is fired first as a means of warning the Pakistanis that high explosives will follow.

Suicide bombing attacks NATO forces in S. Afghanistan

Xinhua / February 11, 2007 - A suicide car bomber targeted NATO forces, but only killed himself in Kandahar province of southern Afghanistan on Saturday, provincial police chief Asmatullah Alizai said.

The attacker drove an explosive-laden car toward NATO forces outside Kandahar city, the provincial capital, at around 10:00 a.m. local time, Alizai told Xinhua. The car blew up prematurely, and the explosion only killed the bomber, he added.

No one has claimed responsibility, but Taliban militants have usually carried out similar incidents before. Eleven Taliban militants were killed by Afghan and NATO troops in the neighboring Helmand province on Friday.

Kandahar and Helmand have been hotbeds of Taliban militants, who clash with foreign and Afghan forces frequently. More than 300 people, mostly militants, have been killed in Taliban-related violence in Afghanistan this year.

Taliban prepare for spring offensive in Afghan south

By Saeed Ali Achakzai

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Taliban fighters are continuing to reinforce a key southern town against an expected NATO offensive more than a week after taking it over, ending a controversial four month truce.

More than 1,500 villagers have fled the town of Musa Qala, in the Taliban heartland, in fear of renewed fighting. "More than 300 fighters are in Musa Qala," senior Taliban commander Mulla Hayatullah Khan told Reuters from a secret base on Sunday. "They have been alerted and military supplies are being provided from other areas."

Residents say the Taliban are reinforcing their troops with heavy weapons, but NATO says there is no evidence of force build-up. The Taliban regularly over-run major centres, but rarely hold them for more than a day or two. This is one of the longest times a key town has been held.

NATO, the United States and the Taliban warn of a major offensive when the snows melt in a few months, after the bloodiest year since the strict Islamists were ousted in 2001 in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

More than 4,000 people died last year -- a quarter of them civilians and more than 170 of them foreign soldiers, mainly Americans, Britons and Canadians who bear the brunt of the fighting in the rebels' southern heartland.

British troops withdrew from Musa Qala four months ago after a peace deal with local tribal elders to keep the Taliban out. The deal was both much vaunted as an innovative solution and much criticised as caving in to the rebels.

The Taliban decided to take Musa Qala after the brother of the local Taliban commander was killed in a NATO airstrike, locals say. The commander, Mullah Ghafour, was himself killed in another airstrike soon after the takeover.

"Our control over the district shows the weakness of U.S.-led NATO forces and we won't hesitate to send more troops and arms to the area if it is needed," Khan said.

Residents say as many as 1,500 families have fled, fearing a coming showdown.

"Very few families are left here while Taliban fighters have spread all around the district headquarters," said resident Ashrafuddin by phone.

Another resident Haji Abdullah Jan said: "They (the Taliban) are digging trenches and laying landmines and that shows there will be a conflict."

NATO says the retaking of Musa Qala is up to the Afghan government and will be done when and how Kabul decides. However, military analysts say the assault will be led by foreign troops and officers.

Afghan gov.: Foreign fighters in south

By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press - KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - An estimated 700 foreign fighters are operating in a southern Afghan province where Taliban fighters overran a town earlier this month, the provincial governor said Sunday.

The foreign fighters — from Chechnya , Uzbekistan and Pakistan — are operating in three volatile areas of Helmand province, including Musa Qala, which Taliban fighters have controlled since Feb. 1, Gov. Asadullah Wafa said.

"We are trying our best to solve this issue in a peaceful way," Wafa told The Associated Press. "We don‘t want innocent people to die in the fighting. If the negotiations with the elders fail, then the government will conduct an operation against the Taliban."

Lt. Col. Angela Billings, a spokeswoman for NATO ‘s International Security Assistance Force, said the Afghan government was leading the negotiations in Musa Qala but that NATO was always ready for potential military action.

Billings said foreign fighters are operating in Helmand but that the estimate of 700 sounded high.

"There are thousands of Taliban there," he said by satellite phone from an unknown location. "If NATO and the government launch an attack, we are ready."

Billings said she had no immediate information on troop movement near Musa Qala. "We have to find a solution," he said. "Either they start the operation against the Taliban or they make a peace deal."

British forces left Musa Qala in October after a peace agreement was signed between elders and the Helmand governor, with the support of British forces. According to the deal, security was turned over to local leaders, while NATO and Taliban forces were prevented from entering the town.

Meanwhile, a U.S. service member died of a gunshot wound Sunday in northern Afghanistan . Military authorities were investigating the death in Balkh province. Lt. Col. David Accetta, a U.S. military spokesman, said he couldn‘t release any other information.

Few U.S. troops operate in Balkh province, where violent attacks and clashes are rare. Sixty-six U.S. troops were killed in action in Afghanistan in 2006; 23 died of non-combat related causes. The death was the first of a U.S. service member in Afghanistan this year.

Afghan governor reveals insurgency plans

KABUL, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Haji Asadullah Wafa, the governor of Afghanistan's Helmand Province, Sunday said up to 700 insurgents are planning on attacking a British installation. Wafa, who took on his post a few weeks ago, told the BBC armed insurgents recently entered Afghanistan from neighboring Pakistan with the intent of attacking a dam project protected by British forces.

He added that the insurgents currently heading into the war torn area around the town of Sangin are made up of Chechens, Arabs and members of the Pakistani Taliban.

The British military task force stationed in Helmand Province said it had no knowledge regarding such insurgency movement, yet maintained that it was prepared to act should the need arise.

The BBC said the talk of the impending attack comes after prolonged discussion that the Taliban would soon launch a spring offensive in Afghanistan.

Withdrawal from Musa Qala: Taliban reject talks offer

* 10 militants killed in southern Afghanistan
* 23 hurt, shopping centre ruined in blast

KANDAHAR: Taliban rebels who captured a southern Afghan town a week ago were fortifying their positions after rejecting talks, a tribal chief said on Friday as officials played down the situation.

A tribal elder involved in talks to persuade the insurgents to leave, after warnings they could face more ISAF action, said they had “suddenly” refused further negotiations. They had said that “our leaders have told us to resist,” said the elder who spoke by phone from Musa Qala. “At the beginning the Taliban had accepted to talk to authorities through tribal elders,” the chief said. “But suddenly they said they don’t want to talk any more.”

The elderly man said there were around 300 Taliban fighters in the town and they had started digging trenches and laying mines to respond to any potential military action by coalition forces. Authorities would not confirm the elder’s information. “At this point, things are the same as they were,” said Nabi Jan Mullahkhail, police chief for Helmand province in which Musa Qala sits. “The government has got its own programmes and we’re working on it.” He would not give details. ISAF would not comment.

A resident said civilians were still leaving, fearing government attacks. ISAF said around 200 people had left but a Helmand refugee official said up to 1,500 families had gone. “Many people have left. There are people still leaving the town,” the resident said.

Separately, Afghan security forces and NATO-led troops clashed with suspected Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan, leaving up to 10 militants dead, police said on Friday. The clash in Sangin district of Helmand province occurred on Thursday, said Ghulam Nabi Mulakhel, the provincial police chief.

There were no casualties among NATO or Afghan forces, he said. A blast destroyed a three-storey shopping centre in Mazar-i-Sharif on Friday, wounding at least 23 people, witnesses said. It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion in the city centre. Police and German troops from ISAF said it was likely caused by gas but witnesses said it was a bomb.

“There are some soldiers from the German unit on the spot... they were called by the government and mayor,” German military spokesman Major Jurgen Fischer said. “We have not had information if this was a bomb or an attack... it seems to be a gas explosion,” he said. The force did not know of casualties. agencies

SEVILLE, Spain, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- Russia's defense minister Friday urged NATO to cooperate with a Russian-led security group to fight the drug threat in Afghanistan.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told an informal Russia-NATO Council session in southern Spain: "Involving the CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organization] in the process could be considered as an additional factor in tackling the Afghan drug threat. But so far we have failed to cooperate in this area."

"Combining the potentials of the CSTO and NATO working on both sides of the Afghan border, we believe, could yield better results," he said. "Therefore, the invitation to NATO to take part in the CSTO's annual anti-drug operation, Channel, remains in force."

RIA Novosti noted that Afghanistan is now the world's main grower and exporter of drugs and the drug trade supports extreme Islamist groups.

"Two CSTO members, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, share borders with Afghanistan and are major trafficking routes for drug smugglers from the country. Heroin and other drugs from Afghanistan have also flooded Russia and other ex-Soviet states since the 1990s," the Russian news agency said.

The CSTO includes Armenia, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and and fights terrorist, drug and military threats in the Eurasian region.

Ivanov told the Seville gathering that the international forces currently operating in Afghanistan had not been able to restore law and order and crack down on the drug trade. The CSTO nations have been operating there since 2003. Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Iran, Pakistan, and China cooperated with them as observers in 2004 and 2005, the Russian news agnecy said.

"In 2005, law enforcement organizations captured about nine metric tons of drugs in the Afghanistan region and uncovered new drug routes from it to Britain and Africa through the United Arab Emirates," RIA Novosti said.

America is doped up in Colombia for a bad trip in Afghanistan

Simon Jenkins The Sunday Times February 11, 2007

Last week Nato defence ministers met in Seville to review the coming spring offensive in Afghanistan. It was like Great War generals dining in Versailles to discuss the trenches. The new Nato commander, US General John Craddock, asked for 2,000 more troops. Just one more push and the Taliban would be defeated, the Afghan army readied to fight, the opium dealers arrested and more aid committed to reconstruction. It was as simple as that. Anyone for paella?

How does this strategy look from the other place in the world where it is being tried, Colombia? This month Washington is redeploying one of its star diplomats, William Wood, from Bogota to Kabul with the enthusiastic blessing of the Pentagon. Wood has been overseeing Plan Colombia, President Clinton’s eight-year effort to fight the cocaine cartels and left-wing insurgents and make Latin America safe for pro-Americanism.

Wood will be joining the new US Nato commander in Kabul, General Dan McNeill, and reversing the allegedly feeble policies of the outgoing British commander, General David Richards. The fourfold increase in violence over the past year is attributed by the Americans to an excess of soft hearts and minds. Wood will want to beef up poppy eradication to starve the insurgency of revenue.

Colombia is undeniably a country which, six years ago, faced disaster. Main roads were blocked by mafiosi and kidnappings and massacres were endemic. Drug lords, revolutionaries and right-wing paramilitaries fought for control of a trade that supplied 90% of America’s cocaine. The Cali and Medellin cartels offered to finance public services and pay off Colombia’s foreign debt in return for quasi-recognition by Bogota. This admirably capitalist innovation — de facto legalising supply — was too much for the Americans.

Instead Washington pumped $600m a year into Colombia’s army and police, enabling the central government to reestablish a measure of command over its own country. An independent, Alvaro Uribe, was elected president in 2002 and hurled men and money at security. The murder rate fell by a third and kidnappings by two thirds. Most of Colombia is now as safe as anywhere in Latin America. Uribe was reelected last year with 62% of the vote in a fair election.

Uribe cannot stem the cocaine trade. Crop-spraying shifts production into Bolivia, Peru and the Amazon jungle, where mile upon mile of virgin forest is lost to coca each year, an ecological disaster that is a direct result of western drugs policy. As long as prohibition sustains a lucrative market for narcotics, countries such as Colombia will supply it. Traditional coca-growing nations on the Andean spine will have their politics and economics blighted by criminality. Growth will be stifled and governments left vulnerable to left-wing rebellion. The war on drugs is the stupidest war on earth.

The best that elected leaders such as Uribe can hope for is to establish a desperate equilibrium: drug suppliers kept relatively nonviolent while right-wing vigilantes are half-tolerated to counterbalance left-wing guerrillas. The only test is survival and as long as Uribe survives America smiles. On an increasingly rabid antiAmerican continent he is one sure ally.

Cut to Afghanistan. Here, too, the West is intervening in a narco-economy that is destabilising a pro-western government. Here, too, quantities of aid have been dedicated to security yet have fed corruption. Here, too, intervention has boosted drug production and stacked the cards against law and order. This year’s Afghan poppy crop is predicted to be the largest on record. European demand has boosted the price paid for Afghan poppies to nine times that of wheat. At this differential a policy of crop substitution is absurd.

Afghanistan is not Colombia. Here the West is not using a local government to implement its drugs and counter-insurgency policy. Some 40,000 Nato troops from more than 30 different countries are gathered in Kabul. Since many of them refuse to fight, the city has become a holiday camp for the world’s military elite. Outside the capital, military occupation acts as a recruiting sergeant for insurgency, leaving Nato bases constantly on the defensive. The war in Afghanistan is proving that an enemy can be held at bay but only at vast expense in money and casualties. It will not be defeated.

The British policy of occupying small towns to win hearts and minds has been a bloody failure. It was wisely replaced last autumn with deals struck with local power brokers, the so-called Musa Qala and Helmand protocols. Up to $5m is handed over to any warlord who can claim provincial control, accepting the pragmatism of the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, who on January 29 even called for negotiation with the Taliban. The local British commander, Brigadier Jerry Thomas, was explicit in seeking to “empower local people to use traditional tribal structures . . . to find an Afghan solution to an Afghan problem”. In truth, there is no other conceivable way to disengage from this mess. A similar “endgame” is being pursued by the new American commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, in securing safe areas policed by local militias.

Now the Americans wish to reverse British realpolitik. To them what Afghanistan needs is a taste of Colombia and Ambassador Wood.

Musa Qala must be reoccupied and poppy-spraying must commence. This defies the view of western intelligence in Kabul which has been convinced that America’s heavy-handed tactics and addiction to aerial bombardment have cost the West five years in Afghanistan. Local commanders are equally opposed to the opium eradication that obsesses the defence ministry in London and the Foreign Office’s Kim Howells. Apart from the futility of trying to spray so vast an area as Helmand, drug lords are the only counterweight to the Taliban. Poisoning Afghanistan’s staple crop and contaminating fields and water supply will push up the price of opium and further breed hatred of the occupation. It is madness.

In Colombia the Americans achieved a sort of equilibrium because local politics was left to police the narco-economy. In Afghanistan Karzai is treated as an American puppet whose authority outside Kabul depends entirely on occupying forces. There is no way that provincial Afghanistan will be pacified by Nato and left to Karzai’s army. Afghan troops (like the Iraqis) will not fight local militias. Training them to do so is pointless as they merely switch sides when the occupiers depart. Ask the few journalists brave enough to visit the battlefields of Helmand and the Pakistan border.

In Colombia the central government enjoyed sufficient democratic legitimacy for its army to drive insurgents into the jungle and induce the drug lords and paramilitaries to surrender (some of) their guns and power, albeit at a heavy cost in justice and human rights. Afghanistan has never enjoyed such central authority, except briefly under the Taliban. It will not do so under the guns of 30 occupying powers. The south of the country craves security and gets only bombs and bullets and is increasingly inclined to the iron rule of the Taliban. Since any prospective Karzai/Taliban coalition is unlikely to please the Tajiks and other tribes of the north, all western meddling will achieve is to set Afghanistan on the road back to the 1990s.

Having visited both Afghanistan and Colombia, I have no doubt that those countries’ miseries start and end in narcotics. With an almighty and bloodthirsty effort, the production of cocaine in Colombia and opium in Afghanistan might possibly be displaced, but only to other benighted countries. What would be the point? As long as rich countries consume these substances in massive quantities it is hypocritical to lay waste the poor countries producing them and thus make them poorer.

Punishing supply is not a “parallel” policy to curbing demand, as economically illiterate policy makers pretend. Demand is never curbed by limiting supply, since supply responds to price. It just will not work.

Hence pretending to victory in Colombia is no different from staving off defeat in Afghanistan. Both are cruel expiations of western narco-guilt. The difference is that in Afghanistan intervention has led us into an unwinnable war. 

NATO meeting ends in Seville with no more Spanish troops for Afghanistan

Fri, 09 Feb 2007, 17:42Spain has given an undertaking to NATO to equip and train two battalions of the Afghan Army.

However the Minster for Defence, José Antonio Alonso, has ignored the requests of other members of NATO meeting in Seville over the past two days, to increase the number of Spanish soldiers in Afghanistan.

Alonso said the reconstruction work being done by the Spanish in the west of the country was exemplary. He had a private meeting also with the United States Secretary for Defence, Robert Gates, and with the Russian Defence Minister, Sergéi Ivanov.

It seems that there was better chemistry between Alonso and Gates than there had been with Donald Rumsfeld, with both sides voicing satisfaction at the meeting.

The meeting in Seville which ended on Friday is the most important NATO gathering in Spain for a decade, and saw more than 700 delegates and 500 journalists present. The extra 5,000 police and civil guard on duty in Seville has also meant that locals have been well aware that the meeting was taking place, and Alonso had words of thanks for the welcome and patience of the Sevillanos.

Doubt over Afghan commitment of Gulf & European countries

NEW YORK: Lawmakers of a key Congressional panel have questioned the commitment of major US allies in the Gulf and Europe towards bringing peace in Afghanistan.

Apparently disillusioned over the alleged lackluster role of these countries in Afghanistan, members of the powerful House Committee on Foreign Affairs have urged the Bush Administration that it is right time to rethink their relationship with these European nations and Gulf countries.

If the nations of Europe and the Gulf are unwilling to do their share to protect international security, then perhaps we should rethink the nature of our alliances with them, said Tom Lantos, chairman of the Committee, which plays a key role in shaping US foreign policy.

If American taxpayers are to be expected to allocate an additional 10 and a half billion dollars to Afghanistan, the oil-rich Arab countries in the Gulf should surely be expected to match our contributions at the very least, he said in his speech Wednesday before the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, at the Capitol Hill.

Lantos, who as part of the Congress delegation led by the House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, visited Afghanistan last month, was particularly harsh on Saudi Arabia -- the most important US ally in the Middle East.

Over past several years, the Saudis have made more than $300 billion in excess oil profits while Americans paid two and a half or three dollars a gallon at pump. Meanwhile, the Saudi contribution to Afghan reconstruction and development has been pathetic, a mere drop in the barrel, Lantos charged.

Urging Rice to make it clear to the Gulf nations that their miserly ways must end, and it must end now, Lantos said: While their fellow Muslims are struggling to survive in harsh Afghan winter, the Saudi royal family is content with handing out a few small coins from its change purse.

Lantos said member nations of NATO must also rethink their knee-jerk aversion to being major players in bringing peace to Afghanistan. Europeans loved NATO when the alliance protected them from the menacing Soviet threat, but their ardor has cooled as NATO is called on to protect Afghanistan from developing into a narco-terrorist state, he charged.

Referring that how the NATO-led force is facing severe crunch of man power in Afghanistan, Lantos said: NATO literally has to beg for troops, and the numbers are still too few -- approximately 35,000, with almost 14,000 coming from the United States.

And those European troops, which are present in Afghanistan, have largely been deployed to the safest areas, leaving the difficult work once again to the US, the Britain and Canadians, he said. Lantos said: Europeans have provided plenty of excuses for their failure to send adequate troops to Afghanistan -- low public support, declining armies, high costs.

Congressman, Dana Rohrabacher (a Republican from California) wanted to know from Secretary Rice why the US allies or at least moderate Muslim states in Gulf have not been spending more money to assist in the development of Afghanistan.

Obviously they are portraying themselves as these solidarity among Muslims, and yet there's great suffering going on in Afghanistan. They have not been stepping up to do their part, Rohrabacher said.

Govt asked to review Afghan policy (Daily Times)

ISLAMABAD: On the opening day of Senate session on Friday, the government came under fire over worsening law and order situation in the country and the opposition demanded the government review its Afghan policy to cope with terrorism.

The opposition members said the Zia regime’s policy on Afghanistan had given the country “kalashnikov and drug culture” while the “ambiguous” policies of the present government had resulted in suicide attacks and lawlessness across the country. Opposition leader Mian Raza Rabbani said that the government’s Afghan policy was the main cause of lawlessness in the country, adding that the ‘worst’ law and order situation was the outcome of the government’s failed polices in Afghanistan, Balochistan and tribal areas.

He also condemned the way the Gwadar Port was handed over to a Singaporean company and said that the government wanted to turn Pakistan into a “colony of multinationals”. He said that mega projects in Gwadar were “elite-oriented”. He said that street crimes were increasing and were being committed in an organised manner “under political patronage”. Quoting official figures, he said that the street crime increased 85 percent during 2001 to 2006 in Punjab and in Karachi 423 vehicles were being stolen every month. Dr Khalid Soomro of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) termed current law and order worst in the country’s history and demanded the government provide protection to the life and property of people. Awami National Party’s Ilyas Bilour said that Afghan border had become unsafe due to “flawed government policies”.

He said that Pakhtoons were also citizens of Pakistan and they should not be “pushed to the wall”. Salim Saifullah Khan, the minister for inter-provincial coordination, defended government policies and asked NWFP government to focus on law and order situation in the province instead of criticising the federal government. Minister for Information and Broadcasting Muhammad Ali Durrani asked the opposition not to politicise Balochistan issue and give solid suggestions for the development of the province. Irfan

Afghan situation poses global challenge: Khurshid Kasuri

MUNICH, Feb 10 (APP): Describing the situation in Afghanistan as a global challenge, Foreign Minister Khurshid  Mehmood Kasuri Saturday called for joint efforts by the international community to bring peace and stability in that country. He was speaking at a conference on “Afghanistan - Mission Impossible and NATO - in the Age of Global Challenges” held here.

“The military measures alone would not suffice.  A holistic strategy, entailing well coordinated political, economic and administrative measures are required to defeat armed extremist elements in Afghanistan,” he said.

The Foreign Minister said Pakistan is doing whatever is possible and feasible to check the rise of extremism within its borders and to curb undesirable cross border activities.

The Foreign Minister said renewed measures to check cross border infiltration include introduction of biometric cards for border crossing and traffic monitoring as well as selective fencing.

He said in tribal areas more than 700 of its soldiers and officers have lost their lives. The Foreign Minister said Pakistan has deployed over 80,000 troops and established 1,000 posts on its international border with Afghanistan, compared to 100 posts on the Afghan side.

Khurshid Kasuri said Pakistan’s cooperation under the Tripartite Military Commission with the ISAF and our sharing of intelligence with them are well known facts.

He said “we have initiated major socio-economic uplift programmes and strengthening of administrative and political structures in our tribal areas bordering Afghanistan”.

Despite Pakistan’s limited resources, he said, it has pledged US $300 million as grant for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. President Pervez Musharraf has also appealed to the international community to come up with some kind of a Marshall Plan for Afghanistan, he said.

He said: “The more the reconstruction and development process reaches the ordinary Afghan, the better it will be for isolating extremism in the country.”

Khurshid Kasuri said Pakistan stands for a stable, viable and prosperous Afghanistan and stands together with NATO and the Western allies in pursuing a common mission in Afghanistan.

He said: “State of civil war inside Afghanistan contributed to the rise of the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda taking roots in the country.” To blame Pakistan for Afghanistan’s problems, he said, would be counterproductive and indeed dangerous because it will take attention away from the real challenges facing Afghanistan - which lie within that country.

Referring a report by the UN Secretary General in September last year, he said, it has been noted that the insurgency in Afghanistan is being conducted by “Afghans operating inside Afghanistan’s borders”.

He said the report also identified five distinct leadership centres of the insurgency, all located within the Afghanistan. Khurshid Kasuri said Pakistan have decided to relocate those refugee camps which are close to the border of Afghanistan to the Afghan side.

He said Pakistan seeks the assistance of NATO and the international community to set up shelters for refugees inside Afghanistan at appropriate places. The international community needs to commit a lot more resources to Afghanistan’s reconstruction and development than has been the case, he added.

“Taliban pose a common challenge that needs to be addressed together including the promotion of better coordination, communication and intelligence sharing between Afghanistan and Pakistan,” the Foreign Minister said.

About role of the NATO, he said, the global challenges faced by NATO, are larger and far more complex than the threat they face from Taliban in Afghanistan. 

These challenges are multi-dimensional and vary from place to place and situation to situation, he added. The Foreign Minister said the threats of today including extremism and terrorism, ethnic strife, regional conflicts, drug trafficking and narco-terrorism, refugee problems and crises, arise from civil wars.

“NATO has had to adjust its doctrines and strategies to address such complex issues in these new situations,” he said. Khurshid Kasuri said Pakistan-NATO dialogue has gained intensity with the alliance’s growing role in the UN-mandated ISAF mission in Afghanistan.

He said the NATO’s role in relief operations and its reconstruction activities in earthquake-hit areas in Pakistan are signs of an evolving role of NATO. The NATO Summit Declaration at Riga on 29 November 2006, devoted a considerable portion to NATO’s mission in Afghanistan including the commitment of support for a stable and prosperous Afghanistan free from terrorism, narcotics and fear, he added.

He said the main challenge for NATO in Afghanistan is not so much military as political and developmental. Therefore, he said, NATO’s mission in Afghanistan should focus on partnership with the Afghan government, efforts towards national reconciliation and remodeling of its strategy for winning the hearts and minds of the Afghan people.

Top U.S. diplomatic analyst says Pakistan falling short on war on terror

ANI - 02/10/2007 - Washington - Lisa Curtis of Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based think tank, feels Pakistan is falling short in its role as a key ally to the American cause of war on terror.

Five years into America's war on terror, Pakistan continues to portray itself as one of Washington's closest allies. But many in Washington fear President Pervez Musharraf is not doing enough to weed out the Taliban, or bring democracy to his country.

In addition to helping the US against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban rule in Afghanistan, President Musharraf promised in 2002 to turn Pakistan into a tolerant, "moderate Muslim" society.

Lisa Curtis of the Heritage Foundation feels the recent comments by Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Secretary of Defence Robert Gates indicate a growing dissatisfaction with the role being played by Musharraf's administration.

"All of this points to a growing frustration in Washington that Al-Qaeda-Taliban leaders still exist on the Pakistan side of the border and in fact are increasing their stronghold there. So I think there is a widening belief in Washington that Pakistan can and should be doing more to confront these on their side of the border.

Washington has given the Waziristan deal that Musharraf struck in September a few months to bear fruit, and instead of bearing fruit in fact it has contributed to increasing cross-border attacks. So I think there is growing frustration in Washington," Curtis said in an interview to Asian News International (ANI).

Curtis said the Bush administration should continue reminding President Musharraf of his pledged role in the war on terror in neighboring Afghanistan as despite his professed efforts, Pakistan continued to be a sanctuary for Taliban operatives.

"So I think that by making it clear to Pakistan that we are committed to Afghanistan, that makes it easier for Musharraf to argue to his own advisors that we need to do more in denying the Taliban safe haven and we need to crack down on this issue. So I think that by us demonstrating that we are committed, Pakistan in fact has no choice but to strengthen their efforts against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda," she said.

"So certainly Pakistan has been an ally in the war on terror, and we value that very much. But I think, like I said, that there is a growing frustration that they have not done enough on the Taliban in particular, and the Taliban is increasing their stronghold on the Pakistani side of the border. People realize the constraints that President Musharraf is under, it's not going to be easy. There are still some within his own security establishment that support the Taliban, the religious parties support the Taliban," Curtis added.

She said the stabilization of the Afghan-Pakistan border was crucial to the U.S coalition forces, which has been fighting one of the worst phases in Afghanistan since the ouster of Taliban five years ago. Most of the violence was in provinces bordering Pakistan.

"Clearly this is not an easy situation, it is not something that is simple. But at the same time it is very important to the global war on terrorism that something be done about these tribal areas. If it's not done, it could mean the next 9/11. It's certainly going to contribute to destabilizing Afghanistan and going against what the coalition forces are trying to achieve there," she said.

The Pakistani border with Afghanistan snakes 2,500 kilometres through rocky mountains and across deserts and is considered a major front line in the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

The border was a Cold War front line in the 1980s when Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the West backed Afghan holy warriors and foreign militants battling Soviet occupiers in Afghanistan.

US striving to strengthen Afghan forces

NEW YORK: A top US military official has said they are working towards making Afghan forces strong and sustaining so that it can successfully handle terrorists and insurgents in the country.

Observing a strong, well-equipped and trained Afghan force is very important, US Navy Admiral Edmund Giambiastiani said this would eventually drawdown American forces and its overall footprint inside Afghanistan.

Giambiastiani, who in the capacity as Vice Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff is the second highest ranking US military officer, said this in an interview to American Forces Press Service on his return from over a week-long trip from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.

During his two-day trip to Afghanistan on February 4 and 5, Giambiastiani met the President, Hamid Karzai, besides top ranking Afghan officials.

"We plan on going from training and capacity building to building capabilities and making these forces sustaining and stand alone," Giambiastiani said. The US has recently announced massive financial aid for the strengthening the Afghan armed forces and police, besides increasing its number.

Referring to his visit to Kabul National Training Center February 5, Giambastiani said this is one institution which is building capability for the Afghan national security forces. It is the main training location for new Afghan recruits.

Giambastiani felt that Afghans can be self-sustaining in basic military training.

"Currently, 90 percent is done with Afghans in the lead with mentors from the United States and other allied forces. It is important for them to stand on their own two feet as they build an entirely new army -- building and training an NCO and officer corps and sustaining them from the ground up," he said.

Canadian reservists awarded Afghan medal; 'made country proud': general

Saturday, February 10, 2007

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - Most Canadians associate medals with old soldiers and wars long past, but that stereotype now clearly belongs to history as hundreds of young men began leaving the battlefields of southern Afghanistan this weekend, joining comrades on their long journey home.

The "citizen soldiers" of Charles Company, 1st Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment, received their campaign stars Saturday in a modest rain soaked ceremony in front their fighting vehicles at Kandahar Airfield.

In pinning the medals on 14 reservists, Brig.-Gen Tim Grant asked them to reflect when they get home on what the last six months has meant to them, their country and the people of Afghanistan. "You're the ones who've made the unit proud, this task force proud and the country proud," he said.

"You have been significant in maintaining the reputation of NATO because last summer the Taliban said they were going to send NATO packing out of this country. You made sure that didn't happen."

Thrown into battle in late August and early September, Charles Company saw some of the battalion's fiercest firefights, its heaviest casualties and perhaps, the worst luck. The unit not only lost four members in one action, but were strafed by a U.S. warplane the following day, killing one and injuring 30.

Campaign medals - gold stars hung on a red, white and green symbolizing Afghanistan - will be pinned on regular army members at a huge ceremony planned for late April at their home base outside of Ottawa. The idea of holding a separate presentation is to allow the families of the soldiers see them receive their decorations.

In addition to the medals handed out Saturday, which all soldiers in theatre are entitled to wear, Grant presented wound stripes to soldiers injured in the accidental strafing at Ma'sum Ghar last September.

The Canadian Forces is currently looking at the idea of replacing the wound stripe, which soldiers can choose to wear or not, with an actual medal, similar to the Purple Heart, granted to injured U.S. soldiers.

None of the reservists wanted to be interviewed following the ceremony, but Grant said the recognition means a lot to them as they return to their jobs and lives back home.

"A lot of people will wear that medal," he told reporters. "But the fact they're wearing it, and they know how they earned it, will make it special to them."

"These are citizen soldiers. In the real world you wouldn't call them professional soldiers, but they have been very professional in what they've done and they volunteered. They came over to serve their country and get a life experience and they got more than what they asked for."

Not long after the ceremony, the Taliban issued a reminder of the dangers of the Afghan mission when a suicide car bomber attacked a Canadian patrol east of Kandahar city.

The driver detonated his high explosive payload early, killing only himself and causing just minor damage to one military vehicle. No Canadians were injured in the attack, although the blast was large enough to be heard several kilometres away at Kandahar Airfield.

In October, Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean announced that four soldiers who served on the first battle group rotation last spring will be presented with the Star of Military Valour and the Medal of Military Valour - the first recipients since the honours were created in 1993 - during Apri's ceremony.

[Disclaimer: The content of this news bulletin does not necessarily reflect the view or policy of the Afghan Government, unless specifically stated as such. The collection of articles and commentaries from Afghan and international news sources is provided for informational purposes, and accuracy of the news is the responsibility of the original source.]