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Philadelphia Inquirer
February 8, 2008 One worry is a Taliban resurgence in the south. More frontline soldiers are needed.
By Anne Gearan and Robert Burns, Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan - The United States and Britain, the nations with the most troops fighting in Afghanistan, made a renewed push yesterday to portray the war as winnable and worthy of international support despite a so-far-unsuccessful struggle to get more allies to commit frontline forces.
On a visit here with her British counterpart, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice emphasized the improvements that Afghanistan had seen since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 toppled the radical Taliban regime.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, at a meeting of NATO allies in Lithuania, said that despite fissures in the alliance over sharing burdens in Afghanistan, "I don't think there is a crisis."
The dual diplomatic efforts by two of President Bush's top advisers demonstrated the importance of Afghanistan's future in the struggle against Islamic extremism as well as the depth of the administration's concern that the mission of stabilizing this country is in danger of stalling or even deteriorating.
A chief worry is the reluctance of some key NATO allies to provide more military resources, including combat troops, at a time when the Taliban has stiffened its resistance, particularly in southern Afghanistan. Some Europeans argue that the United States puts too much emphasis on the military aspects of helping Afghanistan.
In Afghanistan, as in Iraq, the strongest U.S. partner has been Britain.
On an unannounced visit, Rice and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband pointed to progress despite multiple setbacks more than six years after the Taliban regime was overrun and was thought to be all but defeated.
"If you look at the Afghanistan of 2001 and the Afghanistan of now, there is a remarkable difference for the better," Rice said. She also said that it would be unfair to say the efforts by NATO and the Afghan government were not working.
"Can we all expect the security situation will still be difficult? Yes, because Afghanistan has determined enemies who laid waste to this country over a period of a decade," Rice said, adding: "The strategy is one that I believe is having a good effect."
President Hamid Karzai, standing with her at a news conference, defended his leadership, saying that the economy and education systems had improved under his watch and that there were more democratic freedoms under a new constitution.
"Afghanistan, if given more attention, would be very, very glad and thankful, but it is not right that Afghanistan has been forgotten," Karzai said.
In Vilnius, Lithuania, where Gates and his NATO counterparts gathered for two days of talks focusing largely on Afghanistan, the public message was similar to the Rice and Karzai statements.
"It is simply not true," NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said in Vilnius, that the Afghanistan mission is in danger of failing.
Gates ticked off a list of indicators of gradual progress in Afghanistan, from road-building and the establishment of a national government to gains in education and the economy.
Rice and Miliband, in a show of unity, made the trip to Kabul and Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold, so they could get a firsthand look at the area where the future of NATO's combat role is in greatest doubt. Kandahar was the seat of the Taliban regime that ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001. Taliban insurgents remain active in the surrounding province.
The United States contributes one-third of NATO's 42,000-member International Security Assistance Force mission, making it the largest participant, ahead of Britain, which has 7,700 soldiers in Afghanistan.
February 8, 2008 One worry is a Taliban resurgence in the south. More frontline soldiers are needed.
By Anne Gearan and Robert Burns, Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan - The United States and Britain, the nations with the most troops fighting in Afghanistan, made a renewed push yesterday to portray the war as winnable and worthy of international support despite a so-far-unsuccessful struggle to get more allies to commit frontline forces.
On a visit here with her British counterpart, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice emphasized the improvements that Afghanistan had seen since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 toppled the radical Taliban regime.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, at a meeting of NATO allies in Lithuania, said that despite fissures in the alliance over sharing burdens in Afghanistan, "I don't think there is a crisis."
The dual diplomatic efforts by two of President Bush's top advisers demonstrated the importance of Afghanistan's future in the struggle against Islamic extremism as well as the depth of the administration's concern that the mission of stabilizing this country is in danger of stalling or even deteriorating.
A chief worry is the reluctance of some key NATO allies to provide more military resources, including combat troops, at a time when the Taliban has stiffened its resistance, particularly in southern Afghanistan. Some Europeans argue that the United States puts too much emphasis on the military aspects of helping Afghanistan.
In Afghanistan, as in Iraq, the strongest U.S. partner has been Britain.
On an unannounced visit, Rice and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband pointed to progress despite multiple setbacks more than six years after the Taliban regime was overrun and was thought to be all but defeated.
"If you look at the Afghanistan of 2001 and the Afghanistan of now, there is a remarkable difference for the better," Rice said. She also said that it would be unfair to say the efforts by NATO and the Afghan government were not working.
"Can we all expect the security situation will still be difficult? Yes, because Afghanistan has determined enemies who laid waste to this country over a period of a decade," Rice said, adding: "The strategy is one that I believe is having a good effect."
President Hamid Karzai, standing with her at a news conference, defended his leadership, saying that the economy and education systems had improved under his watch and that there were more democratic freedoms under a new constitution.
"Afghanistan, if given more attention, would be very, very glad and thankful, but it is not right that Afghanistan has been forgotten," Karzai said.
In Vilnius, Lithuania, where Gates and his NATO counterparts gathered for two days of talks focusing largely on Afghanistan, the public message was similar to the Rice and Karzai statements.
"It is simply not true," NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said in Vilnius, that the Afghanistan mission is in danger of failing.
Gates ticked off a list of indicators of gradual progress in Afghanistan, from road-building and the establishment of a national government to gains in education and the economy.
Rice and Miliband, in a show of unity, made the trip to Kabul and Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold, so they could get a firsthand look at the area where the future of NATO's combat role is in greatest doubt. Kandahar was the seat of the Taliban regime that ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001. Taliban insurgents remain active in the surrounding province.
The United States contributes one-third of NATO's 42,000-member International Security Assistance Force mission, making it the largest participant, ahead of Britain, which has 7,700 soldiers in Afghanistan.