Obama and NATO summit
With the end of the G-20 summit in London, President Barack Obama arrived in Strasbourg for attending the two-day summit marking the 60th anniversary of the birth of NATO. After his talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Obama said “This is not an American mission, this is a NATO mission, this is an international mission.” These words reflect the fact that the US definitely is seeking more European help in dealing with its war against Afghanistan. In other words, Obama is basically trying to convince the European nations to pledge sending more troops into Afghanistan. And if not military troops, Obama expects that they will at least provide more non-military aid in terms of helping to train the Afghan army and police; sending civilian experts to assist the Afghan government and providing financial aid to run these schemes.
However, the European leaders naturally are not that confident about maintaining their presence in Afghanistan , particularly due to the fact that at home, they face rising opposition from their constituents ( the anti-NATO riots in France are a fair indication). Hence we see that the Dutch intend to withdraw their troops by the end of next year and France will not be sending any more troops this year. All this goes to show that the US must realize that trying to win the war in Afghanistan is an extremely difficult task. Obama must take lessons from the Iraq war , where the US has forcefully tried to set up a regime of their choice on the pretext of spreading democracy. In the process, they have killed countless civilians. The same thing has already been happening in Afghanistan.
Obama must realize that their withdrawal from Iraq is surely a defeat for them. And in Afghanistan's history, they have never bowed down to foreign forces. So, Obama must no longer waste his resources and rather try to take more pragmatic steps as the US presence will only inspire more militants to take up arms both in Afghanistan and in Pakistan.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments