'One Cold War Enough': Gates Plans Moscow Visit

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Arizona Daily Star (Tucson)
February 12, 2007
Pg. 1

By Associated Press
MUNICH, Germany — Pentagon chief Robert Gates responded Sunday to Vladimir Putin's assault on U.S. foreign policy by saying "one Cold War is enough" and that he would go to Moscow to try to reduce tensions. Gates also sought more allied help in Afghanistan.
In eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, American forces 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.
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.
He said the strikes Sunday were in "self-defense."
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.
In Germany, Gates delivered his first speech as Pentagon chief at a security conference there and then flew to Pakistan to discuss fears of a renewed spring offensive by Taliban fighters in neighboring Afghanistan.
Gates' rebuke of the Russian president relied on humor and some pointed jabs.
"As an old Cold Warrior, one of yesterday's speeches almost filled me with nostalgia for a less complex time. Almost," Gates said. Then, as the audience chuckled, the defense secretary said 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."
In his speech Saturday, Putin blamed U.S. foreign policy for inciting other countries to seek nuclear weapons to defend themselves from an "almost uncontained use of military force."
The Russian leader said "unilateral, illegitimate actions have not solved a single problem, they have become a hotbed of further conflicts" and that "one state, the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way."
Gates also made an urgent call for NATO allies to live up to their promises to supply military and economic aid for 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 said that prisoner abuse scandals in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and other mistakes have damaged America's reputation. It will take work, he said, to prove that the U.S. still is a force for good in the world.
While he did not mention the war in Iraq, Gates told officials at the security conference that Washington must do a better job of explaining its policies and actions.
For the past century, he said, most people believed that "while we might from time to time do something stupid, that we were a force for good in the world."
Many continue to believe that, Gates said. But, he added, "I think we also have made some mistakes and have not presented our case as well as we might in many instances. I think we have to work on that."
The bulk of his speech was devoted to the future of the NATO alliance and the need to work together to defend against threats.
In other comments, he said the Bush administration would like to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, but there are some terrorists there who should never be let free. Gates also said detainee trials there will be conducted in the open and with adequate defense for the prisoners.
Pakistan denies charges that the Taliban are staging attacks from inside Pakistan and says it has deployed some 80,000 troops along its rugged border with Afghanistan to track down militants.
Pakistan's border regions along Afghanistan long have been suspected as the hiding places for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri.
Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, acknowledged recently that his outgunned Pakistani frontier guards have allowed insurgents to cross the border and said the army soon would fence parts of the border to stem the problem.
The Pentagon has plans to extend its recent buildup of several thousand combat troops in Afghanistan, initially announced as lasting until late spring, well into next year, a senior U.S. military official said last week.
That move would keep U.S. troop levels at between 26,000 and 27,000 until at least the spring of 2008.
 
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