Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Foreign forces will be engaged in Afghanistan "for decades"

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/08/01/uk-ambassador-well-be-in-afghanistan-for-decades/
Foreign forces will be engaged in Afghanistan "for decades," says the UK's 
ambassador to the United States.
Sir Nigel Sheinwald, the UK Foreign Office's representative in Washington, 
told the Boston Globe Friday: "We're going to have a very long-term 
commitment to Afghanistan's future. . This is not just one year; this is 
going to be for decades. We're going to help them get to a state which they 
can ward off the return of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. That's our strategic 
objective."
Sheinwald's prognosis for the situation in Afghanistan came as a 
parliamentary committee in his home country released a report that is 
harshly critical of the efforts made in Afghanistan thus far, particularly 
those of the UK, whose military force is the second-largest in the 
Afghanistan campaign.
The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said without a clear strategy 
stabilizing Afghanistan had become "considerably more difficult than might 
otherwise have been the case."
Lawmakers criticized US policies in Afghanistan and Pakistan and warned the 
"considerable cultural insensitivity" of some coalition troops had caused 
serious damage to Afghans' perceptions that will be "difficult to undo".
Drone attacks by US forces in Pakistan have "damaged the US's reputation" 
while some of the blame for problems in the international mission in 
Afghanistan must be put on the Bush administration's early focus on military 
goals, it said.
The report also warned that the reputation of NATO - in command of 
international troops in Afghanistan since 2003 - could be "seriously 
 damaged" without fairer burden-sharing between member states to ease the 
strain.
Britain has long called for other NATO countries to contribute more to the 
military effort.
"We conclude that the international effort in Afghanistan since 2001 has 
delivered much less than it promised and that its impact has been 
significantly diluted by the absence of a unified vision and strategy 
grounded in the realities of Afghanistan's history, culture and politics," 
the report said.
"Although Afghanistan's current situation is not solely the legacy of the 
West's failures since 2001, avoidable mistakes, including knee-jerk 
responses, policy fragmentation and overlap, now make the task of 
stabilising the country considerably more difficult than might otherwise 
have been the case."
The British report comes as the US Department of Defense appears to be 
preparing its second "surge" of personnel in Afghanistan this year. 
According to a report in Friday's Washington Post, "Gen. Stanley A. 
McChrystal, who took charge of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan last 
month, appears inclined to request an increase in American troops to 
implement [a] new strategy, which aims to use more unconventional methods to 
combat the growing Taliban insurgency."
Added the Post: "Such a request could receive a chilly reception at the 
White House, where some members of President Obama's national security team 
have expressed reluctance about authorizing any more deployments."
- With AFP. Filed by Daniel Tencer. 

 
http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/08/01/uk-ambassador-well-be-in-afgha.
..
La cosa non sorprende affatto: in una situazioen ben migliore (quella
bosniaca) i soldati ci sono restati quasi 14 anni (e resteranno almeno
fino al 2010).

 La cosa non sorprende affatto:
tanto il parassita non paga le tasse, nè rischia la vita al fronte,
cosa gliene frega?