SHOULD EUROPE BE DOING MORE IN AFGHANISTAN? [+] serious ballot by xxxxxxxx created Fri Jan 26, 07 "Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- NATO pledged to redouble efforts to stabilize Afghanistan after the U.S. said it will escalate the war against the Taliban and boost financial aid to rebuild the country. The alliance ``is stepping up its game in Afghanistan on all fronts,'' Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters after North Atlantic Treaty Organization foreign ministers met in Brussels today. ``But we also have to underline that it is a long-term commitment by the international community.'' NATO's 33,000-man force is gearing up to counter a spring offensive by the Taliban, driven from power in 2001, while political leaders grapple with how to deliver the economic boost to lift Afghans out of poverty. The U.S. is challenging NATO to widen its commitment to Afghanistan after the White House said yesterday that President George W. Bush will seek $10.6 billion in financial assistance and the Pentagon said it will extend the Afghan tours of 3,200 U.S. soldiers. ``We must do more, and do it better, faster,'' Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the meeting, according to a State Department statement. ``We must protect innocent lives. We must stay, we must fight and we must win.'' `Clear Commitments' Several countries today made ``clear commitments'' to boost reconstruction and development assistance, De Hoop Scheffer said. He said he's ``relatively optimistic'' more nations will send additional troops to Afghanistan, declining to provide details before a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Seville, Spain next month. The 26-nation trans-Atlantic alliance, in command of the Afghan mission since last year, is divided over how to fight the war with many countries limiting their combat role. France and Germany, for example, have refused to deploy troops to Taliban strongholds in the south and east. Germany is keeping a tight leash on its 3,000 troops in northern Afghanistan, with parliamentary approval required for a proposal to dispatch six Tornado reconnaissance jets to police the southern skies. ``We all know full well that it will take more than a military presence alone to reach a stabilization,'' German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters today. The allies need to ``tie our military presence in more strongly with civilian reconstruction.'' Reliant on Aid Bush's budget request to Congress breaks down into $8.6 billion to train and equip Afghan forces and $2 billion for reconstruction, Rice said. Afghanistan relies on international aid for more than half its budget. The U.K. is the second-biggest donor after the U.S., pledging more than 1 billion pounds ($1.96 billion) since 2001. About 70 percent of that money has gone directly to the Afghan government to help fund projects including its drug control strategy and reconstruction in the south. U.K. Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett endorsed a ``comprehensive approach'' to Afghanistan. ``We recognize there's a lot to do, but there are opportunities and challenges,'' she told reporters today. Britain's contingent of 6,000 soldiers is the second largest in Afghanistan. The U.S. has an additional 12,000 troops in the country under national command in anti-insurgency operations. EU Contribution European Union countries have given 3.7 billion euros ($4.8 billion) since 2002 and the money will keep flowing at the same pace, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said today. The European Commission, the EU's executive agency, said it will offer 600 million euros over the next four years. Other donors include Japan, which provided about $1 billion over the past four years and pledged another $450 million in January. France, with 1,000 troops around the capital of Kabul, is making the bulk of its financial contribution through the EU's central budget and wants a stepped-up crackdown on the drug trade, Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said. Afghanistan produces 92 percent of the world supply of opium after poppy cultivation soared 59 percent last year to 165,000 hectares, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The Afghan drug trade is a ``market of death'' that wrecks the economy, Douste-Blazy told reporters today. ``There can't be a purely military solution in Afghanistan. We have to do a lot to improve the coordination of the overall strategy.'' " (Source: Bloomberg) - Do you believe that Europe should be doing more in helping to stabilise Afghanistan? Yes, it should send more troops & be willing to place them in the more troubled regions No, not at all I don't know Ballot #111604 : SEE RESULTS Comment: show your vote with comment?

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