Leavenworth Strategist

Generals Discuss NATO Role in Afghan Elections

By Judith Snyderman
Special to American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Aug. 19, 2009 – The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan is supporting Afghan security forces’ efforts to secure polling centers, reduce the effects of insurgents and counter voter apathy in some regions in advance of tomorrow’s presidential and provincial council elections. 

“We are doing everything we can in conjunction with our Afghan partners to provide the very best security arrangements, and we’ve worked hard to reassure the local Afghan communities that they should take part in the election process,” Australian Brig. Gen. Damian Cantwell, chief of ISAF’s election task force, said yesterday during a “DoDLive” bloggers roundtable.

Cantwell described some of the measures ISAF has taken, including taking part in a day-long security rehearsal and sending representatives to meet with local election planners.

“We’ve gone out to each location, we’ve listened to their joint security planning supported by ISAF, [and] we’ve asked them quite telling questions about how they are going to execute the security plan on the day,” said Cantwell, who added he is impressed with what he has seen. “What we are talking about here is a team of security professionals who have demonstrated a very strong desire to do the very best for their people.”

Cantwell and Canadian Brig. Gen. Eric Tremblay, an ISAF spokesman, said they expect the recent spike in insurgent activity to continue. But Tremblay noted that while insurgents have averaged 32 attacks a day for the past 10 days, they can’t disrupt 6,500 polling stations throughout Afghanistan.  

“Clearly, when you look at those numbers, they don’t have the capacity to intimidate and prevent the 15 million Afghan voters that have been registered for these elections,” Tremblay said...

(Judith Snyderman works in the Defense Media Activity’s emerging media directorate.)

 

NATO troop commander says battle in southern Afghanistan will be pivotal

(The Canadian Press) KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Afghanistan's future will be decided by the crucial battle for control of the southern part of the country where Canadian troops are located, a top NATO commander said Monday.

"The international community clearly realizes that the main military effort is in southern Afghanistan, so you need to concentrate the bulk of your forces there," Maj.-Gen. Mart de Kruif said in an interview.

"If you talk about successful elections or winning the counter-insurgency, it will be decided in southern Afghanistan."

De Kruif, who has been head of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the region since last November, predicted the arrival of 17,000 U.S. troops in the area would be a major boost for coalition forces, including Canada's, in the ongoing battle for Kandahar.

"Kandahar is the most important city," he said. "I would even say perhaps more important than Kabul, based on the history of Kandahar and its position. It is essential."

NATO ships in new anti-piracy mission (Allied Protector)

BRUSSELS (AFP) — NATO warships will be in position next week to conduct a new anti-piracy operation in a major world shipping area off the coast of Somalia, the alliance's chief spokesman said Wednesday.

"NATO ambassadors have now approved the operational plan for the deployment of the standing naval maritime group one to conduct counter-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia," spokesman James Appathurai told reporters.

He said that seven ships -- one each from the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, with two vessels from Germany -- would exit the Suez Canal on March 19...

Gates Salutes NORAD’s 50 Years

By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., May 13, 2008 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates saluted North American Aerospace Defense Command’s role as the guardian of North American skies at the organization’s 50th anniversary observance here last night.

NORAD, a U.S.-Canadian military organization, was established May 12, 1958, to defend North America from air and space threats...

NORAD’s mission is no less important today, Gates observed, especially with the advent of transnational terrorism. Operation Noble Eagle airspace-protection missions have been flown over the homeland since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he said. Noble Eagle supplies a ready alert force, air patrols, and surveillance to the United States and Canada, Gates said. Its pilots have flown 45,000 sorties since the terror attacks, he noted.

Canada's House of Commons extends Afghan mission

(CNN) -- Canada's House of Commons voted Thursday to extend the country's military mission in Afghanistan until 2011, with the stipulation that NATO send reinforcements to the volatile Kandahar province.

Most of Canada's 2,500 troops in Afghanistan are in Kandahar as part of the NATO-led mission to stabilize the war-torn country.

Their presence has sparked controversy in Canada, with the Bloc Quebecois and the New Democratic Party calling for an immediate troop withdrawal.

The Canadian mission in Afghanistan was to end next February. It has claimed the lives of 80 soldiers and a diplomat, according to The Associated Press.

Canadians to quit Afghanistan

By Thomas Harding (Telegraph)

Nato's unity in Afghanistan was unravelling last night as Canada announced the date it is to withdraw its troops. After months of failing to get other nations to share the burden of intense combat in southern Afghanistan, Ottawa announced that all its troops would be out by 2011.

NATO’s Leader Says the Alliance Remains Unified on Troops for Afghan Mission

By NICHOLAS KULISH and THOM SHANKER (NYT)

MUNICH — NATO is not devolving into a two-tier alliance of those who fight and those who will not, the alliance’s secretary general said Saturday at an international security conference.

Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer’s defense of the unity of the alliance follows several weeks of difficult wrangling between the United States, Canada and their European allies over sorely needed troops to help fight the insurgency in Afghanistan.

He seemed to be responding to recent remarks by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who warned Congress that the alliance risked becoming a “two-tiered” organization with “some allies willing to fight and die to protect people’s security, and others who are not.”

“We are not on the brink of falling apart,” Mr. de Hoop Scheffer told reporters here, expanding on remarks he made in an address to the Munich Conference on Security Policy.

Canada Presses NATO for Afghan Help

By ROB GILLIES
The Associated Press
Monday, January 28, 2008; 8:29 PM

TORONTO -- Canada will extend its military mission in Afghanistan only if another NATO country puts more soldiers in the dangerous south, the prime minister said Monday, echoing the recommendation of an independent panel to withdraw without additional forces.

BUNDESWEHR UNDER PRESSURE

17 Dec 07 Spiegel

By Alexander Szandar and Susanne Koelbl

Public Mood Is Shifting

In many other countries, however, a heated public debate has erupted over how long the alliance's troops should continue to support a country in which drug production continues to reach new record highs and corruption has eaten its way into the highest levels of government.

In Germany, at any rate, the mood has already shifted. According to recent opinion polls, half of all Germans no longer support the country's Afghanistan mission and favor withdrawing the Bundeswehr from the country.

Public opinion is similar in Canada, which has more than 1,700 troops fighting in southern Afghanistan and has already lost 29 soldiers this year. According to an official who Peter Struck, the floor leader of Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD), recently sent to Canada to sound out the political mood there, the government in Ottawa is coming under increasing pressure. According to the official, if the current opposition wins next year's election, its first move will be to "announce the withdrawal of troops."

The Dutch have already taken that step. After losing eight soldiers in Afghanistan this year, the cabinet ended a series of heated debates with a clear resolution. The government in The Hague announced that it had reached an irrevocable decision to begin withdrawing its troops, stationed primarily in war-torn Uruzgan Province, in August 2010. Under the resolution, the last of the Dutch soldiers will be home by Christmas 2010.

The Dutch decision may have set a precedent, raising concerns among NATO military leaders over a possible domino effect. If only one major NATO country yields to domestic pressure and decides to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, it could set off an avalanche, a Norwegian general recently told Wolfgang Schneiderhan, the inspector general of the Bundeswehr. "It would be a strategic defeat for the alliance."

RAND Study on Afghan Insurgency

Before the Standing Committee on National Security and Defence The Senate of Canada December 10, 2007

Six years after the overthrow of the Taliban regime, Canada, NATO, and the Afghan government stand at an important crossroads. There have been some successes during this period.

RAND report at:  http://www.rand.org/pubs/testimonies/CT296/

NATO ministers offer helicopters for Afghanistan, but no more troops

Bernier pushes for 'super-envoy' to focus efforts

Mike Blanchfield

The Ottawa Citizen

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Canada continued to press some of its reluctant NATO allies yesterday to contribute more to front-line fighting in southern Afghanistan, but had to settle for a few more Polish helicopters.

NATO foreign ministers ended their two days of meetings in Brussels yesterday by issuing a communiqué that stressed the need to more effectively deliver additional reconstruction help to legitimize the government of President Hamid Karzai, singling out the role of provincial reconstruction teams -- such as the one operated by Canada in Kandahar City -- as a crucial element.

Canadian Training for ISAF in US

3,300 Canadian soldiers to train at Fort Bliss

El Paso Times staff report

Article Launched: 12/04/2007 09:28:33 AM MST

A massive two-Canadian mechanized brigade will participate in Exercise Southern Bear at Fort Bliss in February, according to a news release from Canada's Land Force Central Area - Dept of National Defence.

The exercise, designed to prepare soldiers for deployment to Afghanistan in 2008, will involve roughly 3,300 soldiers, with the overwhelming majority of them based in Ontario at CFB Petawawa.

Involved in the exercise will be members of the Canadian Battle Group, Provincial Reconstruction Team, Observer Mentor Liaison Team, National Support Element and the Headquarters for Joint Task Force Afghanistan Rotation 5.

NATO could fail if Canada quits Afghanistan, German leader warns

Peter O'Neil, CanWest Europe Correspondent, CanWest News Service
Published: Friday, November 30, 2007

BERLIN -- The western alliance could collapse unless Canada remains committed to rebuilding Afghanistan and doesn't abandon efforts to convince reluctant European allies to send troops to that country's most dangerous areas, one of Germany's most prominent politicians says.

Hans-Ulrich Klose urged Canadian leaders, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, to increase trips to Germany and other countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to press for a more muscular effort to develop Afghanistan and fight the Taliban insurgency.

Germany recently increased its troop contingent to 3,500, most deployed to Afghanistan's relatively peaceful northern area. The country also added to its contribution by deploying six Tornado reconnaissance jets, which stirred a huge controversy. Germany has lost 26 soldiers since its original 2002 deployment, mostly in non-combat situations like roadside bombs. Canada has lost 73 soldiers and one diplomat.

Canadian General rules out NATO-run prisons

General rules out NATO-run prisons TheStar.com

Remarks follow claims of abuse in Afghan jails

November 17, 2007

Allan Woods
Ottawa Bureau

OTTAWA–Setting up separate NATO-run jails to hold battlefield detainees who might otherwise be tortured is out of the question, the alliance's military chief says.

Gen. Ray Henault, the Canadian chair of NATO's military committee, said creating detention facilities that are run by the International Security Assistance Force would put too much demand on the already difficult Afghanistan mission and undermine the Afghan government, which has responsibility for its own penal system.

"We consider this to be something done in concert with international standards. That's the way we intend to continue doing business," Henault said.

The Canadian policy of transferring detainees to Afghan prisons is being challenged in court by Amnesty International, which is seeking an end to all handovers until the country's jails are free of abuse.

The federal government released thousands of pages of files this week showing Canadian officials have been aware of the deplorable state of Afghanistan's prisons for some time, and are currently investigating seven allegations that Canadian detainees were tortured in Afghan custody.

The most recent allegation came to light in the first week of November and was verified by local authorities who are now deciding whether to lay criminal charges.

Liberal MP Denis Coderre said the documents prove "Canada has violated the Geneva Convention" and "must stop the transfers, bring back the prisoners and respect this convention."

Henault rejected accusations there is "systematic" torture in Afghan jails, or at the hands of its secret police, and said he is not aware of any individual cases of abuse.

"But it would probably be inappropriate for me to say that there is nothing like that that ever happens in Afghanistan."

An aide to Henault added that probes of torture allegations are "going to put the pressure where it needs to be, which is on the Afghan government." Indeed, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has already warned the country's police against using physical abuse and has launched an inquiry into torture allegations.

In the meantime, Henault said responsibility for improving the country's prisons falls to organizations like the Red Cross, Afghanistan's human rights body and the government, not NATO.