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Old 4th Jun 2009, 16:29
  #2106 (permalink)  
phil gollin
 
Join Date: May 2006
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" ....... Our mandate was to remove Al Queda from Afg. ,,,,,,, "


No - stop believing the politicans re-writing history.

Apart from some support for the invasion of Afghanistan (e.g. special forces and re-fuelling) our efforsts have ALWAYS been associated with "Nation Building".

The US RESERVED TO ITSELF the fighting of the Taliban/AQ and did not want NATO associatedwith that fighting (although never spelt out the general reasons repoted in the press was for National Pride (i.e. revenge) and also so that they did not have to have a coalition command with NATO members having a veto on some of the more questionable tactics.

Unfortunately the Taliban/AQ wouldn't go along with the US plan and stay in one place to be bombed to bits and so in 2007 (?) there was a new agreement with NATO, but the main fight against the Taliban/AQ is still meant to be the US's. The US likes to paint Afghanistan as a NATO failure, but unfortunately the actual history is that the US failed to do the task they reserved to themselves (destroying the Taliban/AQ) and also failed to provide sufficient forces themselves thus meaning that they needed to get extra NATO forces involved.

NATO's main role is still officially "Nation Building" - the fact that the un-destroyed Taliban is fighting them is a consequence of previous failures.

Just remember what actually happened - not the spin politicans keep spouting. And when being told which nations "failed" or "are failing" in their mission or in providing sufficient forces, just remember what actually happened.

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