More troops won’t help, believe Afghan analysts

KABUL.

They said instead of deploying more troops, the western military alliance should target terrorist centers across the Afghanistan borders.

NATO on Thursday announced sending more troops to Afghanistan during a defence ministerial meeting in Brussels.

After the meeting on June 29, NATO Secretary General Gen. Jens Stoltenberg said they wouldn’t allow Afghanistan to once again become a safe-haven for ‘international terrorists’.

Stoltenberg didn't say how many more troops would be sent to Afghanistan, but some media reports said NATO was poised to deploy 3,000 more troops to Afghanistan.

However, Afghan experts believe more troops to Afghanistan would have little impact on security situation and NATO should eliminate terrorist centers outside the country’s borders.

Atiqullah Amarkhel, a military affairs’ expert, told Pajhwok Afghan News that NATO had been announcing support to Afghanistan since 2011.

“But unfortunately we see no end to the war or a decline in insecurity. The number of armed insurgents is on the increase and the conflict is threatening the entire country.”

Amarkhel said it wasn’t for the first time that America and NATO had promised support to Afghan security forces as they had earlier engaged 150,000 soldiers in Afghanistan war but that levels of troops had no positive result.

he said places from where terrorists being sent, equipped and financed were known, but NATO was taking no step to do away with them.

“I don’t think sending more troops will have any benefit, if NATO wants to really support us, it should destroy terrorist centres in the first place. If these hideouts are dismantled, then peace will come to this country and the dispatch of more troops will neither end the war or subside it.”

Abdul Shakoor Salanig, international affairs expert, called NATO’s financial and political support over the past one and a half decade as “ineffective”, saying it failed to end the war or ensure security.

Salangi said after 2014, there had been a lack of coordination among America, NATO and Afghanistan’s neighboring countries.

“Renewing support to Afghanistan by NATO doesn’t mean all members of the alliance, countries and neighboring powers are on the same page. This difference brings under question the legitimacy of NATO.”

He said Russia believed America wasn’t in Afghanistan to eliminate insurgents, but to put pressure and weaken neighboring countries. He said Russia was making efforts to undermine NATO existence in Afghanistan.

He said if NATO lacked a united and organized programme in Afghanistan, it was likely the neighboring countries launch actions against NATO and US in Afghanistan.

The expert termed changes to the US strategy and prevention of threats from Afghanistan’s neighboring countries as solution to the problem.

Instead of fighting dialogue should preferred by NATO and it should encourage insurgents into joining the peace process, he suggested.

Meanwhile, some Wolesi Jirga members on Saturday opposed a new surge in NATO troop numbers in Afghanistan, asking the alliance to focus on equipping the local forces.

Deputy speaker Mohammad Nazir Ahmadzai said sending more troops meant more insecurity and violence. The proposed surge would neither help end the conflict nor ensure durable peace, he believed.

He suggested the cost of additional foreign troops be diverted to training and equipping of Afghan forces.

However, Gen. Mohammad Radmanish, deputy spokesman for Ministry of Defence (MoD) welcomed NATO announcement, said: “NATO’s support helps us in every sphere, it enables us to ensure security across the country.”

He expressed the hope Afghanistan become self-reliant with support from NATO until 2022 to assume responsibilities itself.

sns/ma