Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Reuters.com
October 16, 2008
By Andrew Gray, Reuters
WASHINGTON -- NATO and its partners need to get better at coordinating efforts to defeat a "ruthless and resilient" insurgency in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Wednesday.
Gates said America's security depended on being able to combine military, political, and economic endeavors to stabilize failing states and he cast Afghanistan as the ultimate test of that approach.
"To be successful, the entirety of the NATO alliance, the European Union, NGOs (non-governmental organizations), and other groups -- the full panoply of military and civilian elements -- must better integrate and coordinate with one another and also with the Afghan government," he said.
"These efforts today -- however well-intentioned and even heroic -- add up to less than the sum of the parts," Gates said in a speech at a dinner organized by the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington.
He said the objective of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Budapest last week was to improve that situation. But he struck a cautionary note.
"Whether we will make progress remains to be seen," he said.
Washington and other Western governments are increasingly alarmed at rising insurgent violence in Afghanistan, now at its highest level since U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
The Bush administration has ordered a review of its strategy in Afghanistan and plans to send more soldiers next year to bolster a NATO-led force of more than 50,000 troops.
But military commanders have said the conflict cannot be solved by force alone and the insurgency will be defeated only if ordinary Afghans enjoy a better life than they had under the Taliban.
Gates said Afghanistan was "beset by crushing poverty, a bumper opium crop, a ruthless and resilient insurgency, and violent extremists of many stripes, not the least of which is al Qaeda."
"Afghanistan is the test, on the grandest scale, of what we are trying to achieve when it comes to integrating the military and civilian, the public and private, the national and international," he said.
Since taking over the Pentagon from Donald Rumsfeld in late 2006, Gates has championed "soft power", or non-military means, to advance America's interests around the world.
A former CIA director, Gates has called for an increase in the State Department's budget and stressed the importance of winning allies through the power of American ideas.
"We must be prepared to change old ways of doing business and create new institutions -- both nationally and internationally -- to deal with the long-term challenges we face abroad," he said.
"And our own national security toolbox must be well-equipped with more than just hammers."
October 16, 2008
By Andrew Gray, Reuters
WASHINGTON -- NATO and its partners need to get better at coordinating efforts to defeat a "ruthless and resilient" insurgency in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Wednesday.
Gates said America's security depended on being able to combine military, political, and economic endeavors to stabilize failing states and he cast Afghanistan as the ultimate test of that approach.
"To be successful, the entirety of the NATO alliance, the European Union, NGOs (non-governmental organizations), and other groups -- the full panoply of military and civilian elements -- must better integrate and coordinate with one another and also with the Afghan government," he said.
"These efforts today -- however well-intentioned and even heroic -- add up to less than the sum of the parts," Gates said in a speech at a dinner organized by the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington.
He said the objective of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Budapest last week was to improve that situation. But he struck a cautionary note.
"Whether we will make progress remains to be seen," he said.
Washington and other Western governments are increasingly alarmed at rising insurgent violence in Afghanistan, now at its highest level since U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
The Bush administration has ordered a review of its strategy in Afghanistan and plans to send more soldiers next year to bolster a NATO-led force of more than 50,000 troops.
But military commanders have said the conflict cannot be solved by force alone and the insurgency will be defeated only if ordinary Afghans enjoy a better life than they had under the Taliban.
Gates said Afghanistan was "beset by crushing poverty, a bumper opium crop, a ruthless and resilient insurgency, and violent extremists of many stripes, not the least of which is al Qaeda."
"Afghanistan is the test, on the grandest scale, of what we are trying to achieve when it comes to integrating the military and civilian, the public and private, the national and international," he said.
Since taking over the Pentagon from Donald Rumsfeld in late 2006, Gates has championed "soft power", or non-military means, to advance America's interests around the world.
A former CIA director, Gates has called for an increase in the State Department's budget and stressed the importance of winning allies through the power of American ideas.
"We must be prepared to change old ways of doing business and create new institutions -- both nationally and internationally -- to deal with the long-term challenges we face abroad," he said.
"And our own national security toolbox must be well-equipped with more than just hammers."