Posted on 09/14/2006 4:15:34 AM PDT by twinself
Poland's defense minister said in comments broadcast Thursday that his nation will send at least 900 troops to eastern Afghanistan next year. NATO said the offer did not ease the immediate need for 2,500 additional soldiers in the violence-wracked south.
A NATO official said the Polish deployment was routine and had been arranged before the call for additional soldiers.
The 900 new troops will join 100 Polish soldiers already in eastern Afghanistan, and NATO spokesman Lt. Col. Goetz Haffke said the Polish troops had been expected as part of a routine rotation of NATO troops.
"This is part of a regular reinforcement and rotation that had been planned previously," Haffke said from NATO's Allied Joint Force Command Headquarters in Brunssum, Netherlands.
Polish Defense Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told Polish journalists during an event in Washington that, "as of February next year, over 1,000 Polish soldiers are going to be serving in Afghanistan." His remarks Wednesday evening were broadcast on Polish television Thursday morning.
"It will be a mechanized battalion that will be stationed at Bagram, where 100 of our soldiers are," Sikorski said of the new force. "We are going to take part in operations primarily in the eastern part of Afghanistan."
NATO nations failed Wednesday to commit more troops, planes and helicopters to the NATO mission, despite a plea by military commanders for 2,500 extra soldiers to help crush the growing Taliban-led southern insurgency.
Officials at NATO headquarters said talks were continuing on a possible earlier deployment of the Polish troops, but they acknowledged that could be difficult, especially given Poland's commitments in Iraq.
Poland, a staunch U.S. ally, committed combat forces to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and has about 900 troops commanding a multinational division south of Baghdad.
Poland has talked about reducing that troop commitment, but Sikorski said no decision had been made. Sikorski and Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski are in Washington for talks with U.S. leaders.
Associated Press Writers Paul Garwood in Kabul, Afghanistan and Paul Ames in Brussels, Belgium contributed to this report.
A great chance for Germany to show their attidute and do a similar thing.
Probably not, as we've just sent some to Kongo and Lebanon.
that's what I do support (actively).
We are there ...
but I see trouble ahead in afghanistan if we cannot show them another way of earning money then to grow poppy. Make them the general exporter and world might for olives or whool or something.
Shooting taliban is one thing... having the people in a hostage situation between drug lords and whoever comes by with a few bucks to buy their loyalty is not a promising perspective.
(No we cannot just nuke them all...)
Thank you Poland!
Our true friends show it with actions, not just words!
Sure - poverty and frustration is always good ground for extremism (whether jihadi, nationalist or commie). The problem with implementing democracy in Middle East/Central Asia is that you cannot impose your outlooks on these people's culture - their beliefs and ways they perceive the world. They HAVE to WANT it in the first place. They HAVE to work hard on themselves. This is not easy. Growing poppies and copying your older brother's Taliban path is an easy way. Noone can make you No 1 olives exporter if you don't care about olives. Programmes like that failed completely in Columbia. The only way to escape from such III world trap is education and investing in people's development. Supporting schools and investing in their mental potential.
We are not talking about giving social welfare to people who lost their 4000$ a month job having to pay back the mercedes and pay for the college.
We are talking about people beeing shot or starving if they don't help or grow for taliban or druglords.
Certainly it doesn't help that they can't remember a time where standing together brought them anywhere.
Putting a gun to their head doesn't excite them an extra bit because usually they have a gun to their heads allready. If they life in the second generation scared shitless they woudn't be to impressed by an english or polish patrol...
So what do we do now ?
Get out and let the taliban have their way again ?
Kill 'em all ?
Just Enforce ? (put ANOTHER gun to their heads and hope it works the 5th year we try to do that ?)
Just make them proud olive farmers and school them (this time not how to bring down HINDs).?
Afghanistan needs a longer combined therapy - they will be motivated in the end.
Not every country can rise from the ashes as quickly as poland does. (no sarcasm here)
with other words - exactly what you say sir.
Thanks Poland. You guys really are friends and allies.God bless your soldier's.
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