Daily Mail - The extra troops for Afghanistan that aren't 'extra' at all

[magellan]

Has anyone seen this? I did a search and couldn't find it reported on DU....

The extra troops for Afghanistan that aren't 'extra' at all

By MATTHEW HICKLEY
Last updated at 22:51pm on 14th September 2006

Nato faces fresh embarrassment over its Afghan mission after a high-profile announcement of 1,000 extra troops was exposed as overblown spin.

Hours after commanders failed to get alliance members to commit reinforcements to fight the Taliban in the south, Poland's defence minister appeared to come to the rescue by promising 1,000 soldiers.

Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer seized on the news, calling it a "very important step".

But has it emerged that the Polish troops had long been expected as part of a planned rotation and will not arrive until February, despite frontline commanders' pleas for extra manpower now.

To make matters worse, the Poles will be restricted to peacekeeping in the relatively calm east around the capital Kabul, rather than joining the fighting in the volatile south.

[alittlelark]

1. Spinnning, spinning, spinning......

Until our whole nation FALLS DOWN.

[niyad]

2. even NATO is lying now???

[magellan]

4. I wasn't there of course, but it sounds more like an honest mistake

...on the part of the NATO Sec Gen. They're so desperate to hear that someone is answering the call to commit extra troops that when Poland made the announcement it was jumped on without verifying first.

It might even have been an intentional misrepresentation of intent on Poland's part.

The real tragedy is that no one wants any part of Bush**'s WOT. At least not the way it's currently being conducted.

[Just-plain-Kathy]

3. They lie about everything.

It's like they're duct taping a military together for now. Between Stop Lost and trying to get smaller nations to divvy up, we're in trouble. I dread a draft is in our future.

:banghead: