Gen. David Richards, a British officer who commands NATO’s 32,000 troops in Afghanistan, talks to The Associated Press in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Oct. 8, 2006. NATO’s top commander in Afghanistan said Sunday that the majority of Afghans will decide within a year whether to abandon the international community’s efforts here and instead support resurgent Taliban militants.
AP: NATO chief warns of Afghan tipping point
NATO’s top commander in Afghanistan said Sunday the country was at a tipping point and warned Afghans would likely switch their allegiance to resurgent Taliban militants if there are no visible improvements in people’s lives in the next six months.
Gen. David Richards, a British officer who commands NATO’s 32,000 troops here, warned in an interview with The Associated Press that if life doesn’t get better over the winter, most Afghans could switch sides.
“They will say, ‘We do not want the Taliban but then we would rather have that austere and unpleasant life that that might involve than another five years of fighting,’” Richards said.
Afghanistan is going through its worst bout of violence since the U.S.-led invasion removed the former Taliban regime from power five years ago. The Taliban has made a comeback in the south and east of the country and is seriously threatening Western attempts to stabilize the country after almost three decades of war.
“If we collectively … do not exploit this winter to start achieving concrete and visible improvement,” then some 70 percent of Afghans could switch sides, Richards told The Associated Press.
But, the response to General Richards is who the HELL cares.
The military is in Afghanistan to KILL the Taliban, keep the Taliban from supporting terrorists like Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda and eliminate terrorist training camp from exporting their deadly Jihadists. The role of NATO forces is NOT to nation build.
It is ridiculous that the NATO command has allowed Pakistan to escape attack after they have harbored and supported a resurgent Taliban. Everyone knows that Pakistan and their intelligence services have been supporting the Taliban and Al Qaeda in their fight against NATO Coalition forces.
Flap asks why NATO air forces have not carpet bombed the shit out of those Pakistani Taliban terrorist camps and blockaded Pakistan. Is the NATO Coalition allowing the Taliban the same strategy as the Viet Cong and Cambodia in the Vietnam War? What are they waiting for? Attrition of their own forces? Winning “hearts and minds” as they are picked off one by one in an insurgency campaign?
Ministry of Defence (MoD) picture shows British paratroopers fighing the Taliban in Nawzad, southern Afghanistan. The Daily Telegraph has reported that British troops locked in vicious fighting in Afghanistan have been recommended for almost 180 medals for gallantry.
Richards will command NATO’s troops in Afghanistan, including 12,000 U.S. forces, until February, when U.S. Gen. Dan K. McNeil will take command.
The British general said he’d like to have about 2,500 additional troops to form a reserve battalion to help speed up reconstruction and development efforts.
The south of the country, where NATO troops have fought their most intense battles this year, has been “broadly stabilized,” Richards said.
Since the southern part of Afghanistan has been stabilized now it is time for the NATO Coalition to go after the Taliban in Pakistan. President Musharraf should be bluntly told: Either help us or get the hell out of the way. NATO commanders will be doing just that – and very soon.
NATO commanders from five countries who have troops stationed in Afghanistan — the United States, Britain, Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands — are demanding their governments get tough with Pakistan over its support for the Taliban militia, The Daily Telegraph reported Friday.
“It is time for an ‘either you are with us or against us’ delivered bluntly to Musharraf at the highest political level,” an unnamed NATO commander told the British newspaper.
Go after the Taliban.
Only fools would allow them to re-establish themselves in Pakistan – not far from their previous sites of terror.
NATO’s top general in Afghanistan, British Lieutenant General David Richards (L), shakes hands with Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry (R), commander of the US-led coalition at the ISAF headquarters in Kabul last week, Richards is to fly to Islamabad and confront President Pervez Musharraf over Taliban operations in Pakistan, The Sunday Times newspaper said.
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