"... Reliable sources tell The Cable that the review has entered its final stages, with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and National Security Advisor Jim Jones now taking the lead and putting on the final touches. Today, Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke cancelled a planned speaking event scheduled for Wednesday, November 18, at the Women's Foreign Policy Group, "due to unforeseen changes in the speaker's schedule," a group representative said. And the administration sent a team to Brussels this week to consult with all 43 member nations of the International Security Assistance Force, including all 28 NATO nations......."
Friday, November 6, 2009
Afghan strategy rollout imminent
The Cable/ here
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Good news. Reason wins sometimes: Jones is in Der Spiegel this morning rejecting more troops for Afghanistan. Punch line: "We could deploy 200.000 soldiers there and the country will just soak them up, the way it did in the past already."
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,659902,00.html
More Jones:
"Generals always ask for more troops," he said: "I am convinced that we can't solve the problems there simply by deploying the military." (...) There is no upper limit that would solve the problem."We could deploy 200.000 soldiers there, and the country will just soak them up the way it already did in the past." Instead the top security adviser argues for a transfer of responsibility to Afghan institutions and a pull-out of Nato forces. He said:"It has to be our objective in the areas of national security, the economy and public administration to transfer responsibilty to the Afghans as quickly as possible." This transfer back to the Afghans should happen "within the shortest possible time span".
In response to the question, how long US troops should remain in Afghanistan, he said: "I don't know exactly for how long. But I know that our president and other heads of government are pushing us to do everything we can to get the Afghans to assume responsibilty."
Jones rejected the concept that the West had to engage in Nation Building: "If the Afghans wish to enjoy the blessings of a democratic, peaceful society offering better chances for their children, then both the central government and the provincial governors have to be more functional than they have been in the past."
It is al-Quaida, which operates largely out of Pakistan, and not the Taliban that plays the most important part in the threat analysis of the security advisor.
(This interview is labelled a Spiegel Gespräch, which means it is a long interview, running over several pages in the Magazine. Usually they'll have a full English translation by Monday afternoon US time.)
Pretty big news I would say: The US for a change doing something that's not nuts...
Well well... while I translated the bits of the interview, der Spiegel did the same, and apparently the full interview will be available after 9. am Eastern Time.
Yallahhhh... now I can go back to bed....
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,659903,00.html
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