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Secretary Rice, with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, attends a NATO foreign ministers' meeting January 26. (©AP Images)
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26 January 2007
U.S. Pledges Additional $10.6 Billion to Afghanistan Operation, January 26, 2007(Rice calls on NATO countries to increase commitments in troops, funding)
By David Shelby
USINFO Staff Writer
Washington – The United States intends to devote an additional $10.6 billion to security and reconstruction operations in Afghanistan, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced January 26. She made the announcement shortly before she met with NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, Belgium, to urge the organization’s members to follow suit in increasing their commitment to the Afghan mission.
Speaking to reporters en route to Brussels, Rice said, “NATO is having a lot of success against the Taliban and this is really to reinforce that success.”
In Washington, Under Secretary of State R. Nicholas Burns said at a January 26 press briefing that “what we saw in 2006 was a concerted attempt by a large number of Taliban forces … to strike at both the Afghan national army and local officials. And we understand that the United States and NATO need to push back against that in a very strong way.”
He said Rice’s intention in calling together the NATO foreign ministers “was to put a strategic focus on Afghanistan and to have the United States suggest that NATO needs to do more in the way of troops, in the way of money and in the way of ridding itself of the restrictions on the use of military force so that NATO can be successful in Afghanistan.”
Burns said the United States has spent $14.2 billion in Afghanistan since 2001 and added that no other country has been able to match this effort.
Burns urged NATO-member countries and other troop-contributing nations to reconsider restrictions they place on their troops’ ability to engage in combat with Taliban forces. He called this an “existential issue” for the alliance, saying it inhibits the commanders’ tactical ability to respond to challenges from the Taliban.
Currently troops from the United States, Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom are responsible for the majority of combat operations because of restrictions on troops from the other 22 countries involved.
He said European countries need to send more troops and allow them to be deployed in the south and the east of Afghanistan, where the majority of the fighting takes place.
The under secretary mentioned various reconstruction projects that would benefit from the increased U.S. financial commitment, including road building, power generation and distribution, school rehabilitation, clinics, small business credits and agricultural support programs.
He said the funds also would support training and equipment for Afghan security forces. He said the United States hopes to increase the Afghan national army from 30,000 to 70,000 troops and expand the police force to 82,000 officers.
Burns dismissed the idea that the Taliban poses a strategic threat to the government of Afghanistan.
“The Taliban mainly focus on tactical strikes against defenseless people, civilians,” he said. “So they attack teachers and try to intimidate them from not opening the schools, particularly schools that educate girls, because of that opposition to educating girls. They attack elected officials.”
He said NATO forces were effective in repelling the Taliban offensive in late 2006, but he said that the rising number of Taliban militants and the likelihood of a major Taliban offensive in the spring mean that NATO needs to redouble its efforts to secure the country. (See related article.)
A transcript of Burns’ briefing is available on the State Department Web site.
For more information on U.S. policies, see Rebuilding Afghanistan.
