Stefanie Babst: NATO has embraced the power of social media. The Alliance engages thousands in discussions on defense and security and these open, online debates have already borne fruit. Transatlantic policy is no longer the realm of an isolated elite: all citizens now have a chance to make an impact.
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Hubertus Hoffman: President Karzai should be removed from the line of fire by going into exile in Europe. His inability to reconcile with the Taliban, 2009’s fraudulent election, and his poor reputation in Pakistan all indicate why he should be leave his position. Afghanistan needs a fresh start with a new government.
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Anders Fogh Rasmussen: After the London conference, NATO was accused of trying to achieve peace by bribing the Taliban. In this video, the NATO Secretary General says that this is not the case, and that reconciliation and re-integration efforts will provide an alternative path to the Afghan people.
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Ulf Gartzke: The new leadership of the SPD is strengthening its pacifist position on the Afghan war. Party Chair Gabriel’s plans to solicit policy input from the party base is a thinly veiled attempt to gain convenient political cover to orchestrate a volte-face on Afghanistan.
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Jerzy S Deren: ISAF consists of a huge number of actors constrained by limited political will, with unequal combat roles, making forces more vulnerable. A holistic approach is required to counter the unique challenges of the Afghan war. Furthermore, a successful conclusion to this complex process is the only way to prove NATO’s credibility to an increasingly skeptical public.
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According to a recent complaint by General McChrystal, senior decision-makers are being forced to turn to the mass media in search of the information they need on Afghanistan. The intelligence community is preoccupied with gathering a flood of highly detailed information on insurgents and has thus failed to provide vital general information on the environment in which the Taliban operates. In
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German troops are doing great work in Afghanistan but are not getting the support they deserve. ++ Despite the ongoing debate in Germany over whether troops are actually needed, they are a key partner and complement to the ISAF and US missions in Afghanistan. ++ 2010 and 2011 will be critical years in the war as the strategy shifts to training and building partnerships with Afghan security. ++
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Last week’s London conference has reached two major consensuses: there needs to be a 5 year plan to shift security responsibilities to the Afghan people and Taliban members need to be lured out their ranks and into the mainstream. ++ The summit exposed a number of contradictions between goals and strategy, namely between the US troop surge and political reconciliation with the Taliban. ++
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As in Iraq, there is no victory to be found in Afghanistan. ++ Only when foreign troops leave will the conflict come to an end. ++ Whether there will be an increase in troops or not, the question still remains: will the new Afghanistan strategy look for a fall-guy? ++ The growing perception among the political and military leadership in Pakistan is that the US wants to “transfer its war heritage”
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The US Afghanistan strategy, escalation to attain peace through war, is ominously like the last administration’s approach and risks getting the country into “political and military quagmire.”++ It is based on 9 postulates, such as linking Pakistan to stability in Afghanistan; it fails to offer sufficient new options to address Pakistan’s instable, fragmented power divisions ++ Other assumptions,
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