U. S. Troops Become Foreign Troops
KABUL, Afghanistan -
NATO extended its security mission Thursday to all of
Afghanistan nearly five years after the West began its war to defeat the Taliban, taking command of 12,000 U.S. troops in the war-battered country's east.
The handover diminishes the
Pentagon's role in Afghanistan and gives the Europe-based military alliance its biggest test yet.
The transfer of command "illustrates the enduring commitment of NATO and its international partners to the future of this great country," said British Gen. David Richards. He was promoted to the military's top rank hours before a handover ceremony at the NATO compound in Kabul attended by President Hamid Karzai and U.S. Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry.
The takeover caps an already historic expansion for the military alliance that was created as a Cold War bulwark against the Soviet Union. The mission in Afghanistan is the biggest ground combat operation in NATO history, and gives Richards command of the largest number of U.S. troops fighting under a foreign commander since World War II.
With NATO handed the lead role, Washington has shed some responsibility for a stability project that appears to be headed in the wrong direction. U.S. voters readying for midterm elections have expressed fatigue with the Bush administration's twin wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061005/ap_on_re_as/afghan_nato_13
Full Story
NATO extended its security mission Thursday to all of
Afghanistan nearly five years after the West began its war to defeat the Taliban, taking command of 12,000 U.S. troops in the war-battered country's east.
The handover diminishes the
Pentagon's role in Afghanistan and gives the Europe-based military alliance its biggest test yet.
The transfer of command "illustrates the enduring commitment of NATO and its international partners to the future of this great country," said British Gen. David Richards. He was promoted to the military's top rank hours before a handover ceremony at the NATO compound in Kabul attended by President Hamid Karzai and U.S. Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry.
The takeover caps an already historic expansion for the military alliance that was created as a Cold War bulwark against the Soviet Union. The mission in Afghanistan is the biggest ground combat operation in NATO history, and gives Richards command of the largest number of U.S. troops fighting under a foreign commander since World War II.
With NATO handed the lead role, Washington has shed some responsibility for a stability project that appears to be headed in the wrong direction. U.S. voters readying for midterm elections have expressed fatigue with the Bush administration's twin wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061005/ap_on_re_as/afghan_nato_13
Full Story
posted by Dani @ 9:07 AM
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