Afghanistan deployment in doubt

[ECH1969]

AUSTRALIAN plans to send a military reconstruction team to Afghanistan are in doubt following warnings that al-Qaeda and Taliban forces are threatening a fierce counter-offensive in the country's south.

A British military intelligence report suggests Britain's troops could face their biggest losses since the Falklands War if they are sent to southern Afghanistan.

The report warns that a new terror group linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaeda in Iraq has emerged and is imitating his methods. The Taliban has regrouped, waging a classic insurgency campaign involving suicide bombings and roadside blasts.

The warnings follow an increase in fighting over the past year in which several thousand insurgents and and about 100 US soldiers killed.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17719118-2,00.html

[ShockediSay]

1. So why didn't we nail down Afghanistan when we were victorious there?

GottattakIraqGottattakIraqGottattakIraqGottattakIraq....

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Too dangerous for troops?

Wow, that's a really successful state set up there. Just as well the US Joint Chiefs of Staff were so confident in July:

The al-Qaida basically does not operate in Afghanistan, although they'll make attempts because they stay on the border areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan. They'll make attempts, I think, to thwart progress in Afghanistan.

Certainly, there are remnants of Taliban, well-trained, good fighters, been fighting for a long time, very capable, that will -- that are currently pretty much staying to the hills.

http://fpc.state.gov/fpc/49524.htm

[Gloria]

3. NATO IN A SPIN OVER AFGHAN EXPANSION--BBC 12/12/05

1//BBC News, UK Monday, 12 December 2005, 17:53 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4521318.stm

NATO IN A SPIN OVER AFGHAN EXPANSION
Andrew North in Kabul

The size and mission of the British military force due to be sent to southern Afghanistan next year as part of Nato plans to expand its peacekeeping operations are being scaled back, the BBC has learned.

The move comes amid continuing uncertainty over the commitment of other European alliance members to the plan for Nato to take over responsibility from the US for the more dangerous south and east, the heartland of the four-year-old Taleban-led insurgency.

Last week, the Dutch government again postponed a decision on sending 1,100 troops to the volatile southern province of Uruzgan, amid domestic concerns about casualties.

For similar reasons, the UK government is now considering sending only about 1,000 combat troops to the equally challenging province of Helmand, well-placed sources have told the BBC.

That is about half the number originally discussed.

The government may also shelve plans to deploy Apache attack helicopters to support them.

'Number one priority'

Part of the problem, the BBC was told, is that the government "has still not decided what it wants the military to do in Helmand".

However, according to these sources, proposals for British units to hunt drug traffickers in Helmand - Afghanistan's number one opium producing region - have now been abandoned.

MORE