Every time NATO DMs meet on Afghanistan it’s a good bet that the plan is going to involve making the Afghan military even bigger. It has been a safe strategy, based on the premise that it is making Afghanistan handle its own security woes.
But this time, as NATO DMs met, the discussion was about making the unwieldy behemoth smaller, as they are finally realizing that NATO will have to finance the military indefinitely.
The enormous $11.6 billion price tag, nearly eight times the revenues of the entire Afghan government, is ending the delusion that the Karzai government will be able to pay for it even a decade down the road.
While the talks contemplate how to make that military a little more affordable (not for Afghanistan, surely, but for NATO), Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has raised the idea of other, non-NATO countries chipping in, saying it’d be “much better in a longer-term perspective.” Though a number of nations have offered to give the Afghan government a little aid, the number willing to bankroll the military in perpetuity is likely low.
Don't tell me this frankly miraculous thought just occurred to the guys in charge just now?
Anders Fogh Rasmussen seems to be a real blood thirsty neo-con. Usually Europeans have more sense then that after the slaughter of WW part i and II. I assume he has connections to arms companies.
Mr. Rasmussen's job depends on all of these wars. I'm not sure he believes in anything except collecting a paycheck. NATO's purpose disappeared with the demise of the Soviet Union 20 years ago. Ever since, it has been searching for a reason to exist.
Sooooo, the US is in secret unilateral meetings with the Taliban without inviting Karzai…and now the US/NATO wants to reduce the size of the Afghan military… Hey Karzai, you got that warm fuzzy about this turn of events?