NATO Commander Calls For Additional Troops
The top NATO commander in Afghanistan is calling on member nations to commit additional troops to help fight an unexpectedly fierce Taliban offensive. General James Jones says this is not meant to signal that the mission is in jeopardy, only that he would like additional insurance so the majority of Taliban can be defeated before they retreat into the mountains for the winter.
Jones will meet top generals from the 26 NATO nations Friday and Saturday in Warsaw, Poland, in an attempt to generate hundreds of troops, with planes and helicopters needed for the mission.
"We have to give the commander additional insurance in terms of some forces that can be there, perhaps temporarily, to make sure that we can carry the moment," he said.
Jones acknowledged that NATO had been surprised by the "level of intensity" of Taliban attacks since the alliance moved into the southern region in July and by the fact the insurgents were prepared to stand and fight rather than deploy their usual hit-and-run tactics.
On Thursday, Taliban militants took over a police station in the remote southern town of Garmser in Helmand province after officers fled for a second time in two months, police said. Taliban forces briefly held the town for two days in July before coalition troops retook it.
Jones said, however, that he was confident that NATO troops could win the war.
"In the relatively near future, certainly before the winter, we will see this decisive moment in the region turn in favor of the troops that represent the government," Jones said at NATO's military headquarters in southern Belgium.
He told reporters he was confident the meeting in Warsaw would muster helicopters, transport planes and several hundred "flexible" reserve troops able to move quickly around the region in support of the operation against the Taliban.
"It will help us to reduce casualties and bring this to a successful conclusion in a short period of time," he said. "This is not a desperate move, it is more of an insurance package."
Jones said he wanted to "destroy" Taliban fighters now confronting the NATO mission before they head back into the mountains with the onset of winter within the next few weeks.
Although Jones said he was confident allies would respond to his appeal at the Warsaw meeting, he did acknowledge that nations have been reluctant to commit troops to the NATO force, which has sustained increasing casualties in the last weeks.
NATO's Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer backed Jones' call for allies to strengthen the NATO force, which currently has about 20,000 troops.
"All allies should think how they can help," de Hoop Scheffer told reporters in Brussels.
People should be noting what appears to be a very coordinated upswing in violence in many areas right now. These are not discreet elements but part of a larger whole.
