Yahoo.com
February 10, 2008 MUNICH, Germany (AFP) - US Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned that Islamic extremists worldwide would receive a huge morale boost if NATO's efforts to stamp out Afghanistan's resurgent Taliban falter.
Speaking at the annual Munich Conference on Security Policy, which for four decades has been a traditional venue for Washington to flag its concerns to European allies, Gates said that the loosely organised international Islamic movement is "built on the illusion of success".
"After all, about the only thing they have accomplished recently is the death of thousands of innocent Muslims while trying to create discord across the Middle East. So far they have failed. But they have twisted this reality into an aura of success in many parts of the world," Gates said.
"It raises the question: What would happen if the false success they proclaim became real success? If they triumphed in Iraq or Afghanistan, or managed to topple the government of Pakistan? Or a major Middle Eastern government?
"The task before us is to fracture and destroy this movement in its infancy -- to permanently reduce its ability to strike globally and catastrophically, while deflating its ideology. Our best opportunity as an alliance to do this is in Afghanistan."
Afghanistan's extreme-Islamic Taliban, who gave a safe haven to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, were ousted from power in 2001 by a US-led invasion in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States.
But international forces and the Afghan army have been confronted by a renewed Taliban insurgency which has been gaining strength, notably in the south of the country which has seen heavy fighting for months.
Gates has been pressing his message over recent days in Europe, notably at talks in Lithuania with fellow defence ministers from the 26-nation NATO, where he continued his campaign to convince European allies to send reinforcements to Afghanistan.
NATO's UN-mandated International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan has grown from 16,000 to 43,000 troops -- around one-third of them American and one-fifth British -- within the space of two years, but commanders have been calling for another 7,500.
With the public in many European countries strongly opposed or simply sceptical about their troops' involvement in what has been evolving from a peacekeeping mission to a combat operation, many governments have been wary of unpopular new deployments, especially of sending their forces to the volatile south.
"We must not -- we cannot -- become a two-tiered alliance of those willing to fight and those who are not," said Gates.

And I think Iraq has a better chance of working out than Afghanistan.

With the public in many European countries strongly opposed or simply sceptical about their troops' involvement in what has been evolving from a peacekeeping mission to a combat operation, many governments have been wary of unpopular new deployments, especially of sending their forces to the volatile south.
"We must not -- we cannot -- become a two-tiered alliance of those willing to fight and those who are not," said Gates.

That may have been stating the obvious. The mission should be to avoid sending the message to the violent Islamic fundamentalists in the area that if they wish to succeed, all they have to do is to sustain their violent acts against the rest of civilization until we all get tired or until they can convince the civilian population that it is too costly to keep opposing them. They seem to believe no matter what the real military situation is, no matter what the civilian population suffers, no matter how many innocent die, all they have to do is to keep blowing people up and they will emerge victorious and the world will thus become an Islamic kingdom with them in charge, of course. If any country is naive enough not to realize this, then I'm afraid it will only add fuel to their fire and continuation of the violence and death that we've seen in Iraq and Afghanistan to this point. Europe, the U.S., and all of our allies need to present a solid front that is not afraid to oppose those that would destroy us. That, of course is just my opinion.

absolutely spot on D Top. Since I have been here, this is the message I have been trying to deliver, but I did not have the words as you have.

Here we have been in a rather unique position to understand what is happening, those of us with eyes wide open, we have it upon us in many ways.


The very last thing can help is denial, which will bring disaster for large parts of the world.

The funny thing is that USA, probably the least at risk of being overwhelmed, which just won't happen for reasons we all clearly know, have stuck themselves up at the forefront to do the protective aggressive job reuired to save the rest of the world, once again, and all they receive in return is a kick in the balls all round. Unbelievable!

W"e must understand that the Pakistan border region can keep Afghanistan intimidated for 100's of years if it is not faced, and dealt with, one way or the other. Pakistan is still the root.

Our opponents in this Jihadist attack upon us respond only to strength and power, and any weakness displayed is seen as a major victory.

Wake up world, stop looking at your feet. USA, like the rest of us, are the victims in this cause, the good guys. And those bringing about the thriving of our enemies are those weak-kneed hand wringers who continually castigate the whistle-blowers, and say there is no problem. To them I say - just get off our backs and let us get on with the job.

I don't think the world realizes it and we're going to be in for a pretty rough century.