Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Afghanistan: New NATO HR Being Called To Lead "Super Envoy"

A New NATO "High Representative" is being called for to lead a "Super Envoy" in Afghanistan

"Speaking at the recent summit in Edinburgh, Scotland, of countries active in volatile southern Afghanistan, including Canada, the U.S., the Netherlands, Britain and his own, Australia's new defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon said the West has shown a "a lack of coherent strategy...


that fuelled further calls by Canada and others for a "super envoy" to co-ordinate NATO and United Nations efforts in Afghanistan.


A super-envoy is needed to "knock heads and bring together the different elements of the mission -- security, reconstruction, economic development, etc. -- into a coherent strategy," he said.

Britain's Lord Paddy Ashdown, a former politician and military officer, has the skills and "heft" to do the job. "The question is whether he wants it after his bruising battles in Bosnia."


The danger with having a high representative that would do all the co-ordination for both NATO and the UN is that the Karzai government -- which is weak with elements of corruption -- would not be able to learn from their mistakes because somebody else would be there to co-ordinate all the various activities coming into the country," said Alain Pellerin, executive director of the Conference of Defence Associations in Ottawa".


Read the entire article Critical Year Ahead For Allies

SIDENOTE***



In this Edinburgh article 12-14-07 entitled "Riot Police Posed To Face Protesters At NATO Summit" I found this interesting,


"He (Prime Minister Gordon Brown) said he had just returned from a four-day visit to Afghanistan where he had seen "tangible" progress. "But military power can only ever be part of the solution. We must build on our hard-won military gains and go further to help the people of Afghanistan to provide their own security, governance and economic development.


But Australia's defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon was today reported to be planning to say his country would send no more troops to Afghanistan until European countries such as Spain and Germany step up their commitment.


The meeting involves the eight countries with troops in the south of Afghanistan".


Action in Afghanistan 2008 will be of major major importance this year.






Spain's King Juan Carlos has paid a surprise visit to his troops in Afghanistan. It is extremely rare for heads of state, especially monarchs, to go to war zones, but as Commander-in-Chief, the King was happy to review Spanish soldiers at their base at Herat in western Afghanistan. He also spoke by radio to troops elsewhere in the country, wishing them a good 2008.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

You said "I found this interesting." Why? This is such a good article, and I was glad to see some governments getting frustrated with the lack of EU's sense of direction, How many places around the world can the West put it's fingers in the dam before it collapses?

johnny said...

Exactly setterman!

How many Kings Men will it take to plug up the dam?

With the news of a Super envoy and a HR to lead them and then King Juan Carlos visiting them I wonder if the lack of EU direction in Afghanistan is being orchestrated.

I'm sure we'll see JS somewhere in all of this.

björn said...

great post Johnny!
thanks for watching!
farmer

Constance Cumbey said...

Hi Johnny,

I am enjoying your site and the play of words on Javier Solana's "50 reasons to say to to NATO" with "51 reasons to say no to Global Governance." I have posted this to my site, Rich of Medford's site, and Farmer's, but thought your readers needed it as well.

Keep up the EXCELLENT WORK!

Check out this 2003 UN Conference involving Javier Solana's very good friend Giandomenico Picco as moderator:

http://tinyurl.com/3b848y

Solana's disturbing speech at the Fire and Crystal conference can be accessed at

http://tinyurl.com/3aeoyf

Dorothy, Herb Peters and I all took close looks at these when given. In view of Rich of Medford's research, it has taken on even deeper and more disturbing signficance.

johnny said...

Thanks Constance,

Both of the tinyurl's came in clear.

Have to step out briefly but will read this afternoon.

The Fire and Crystal conference sounds eerily reminiscent to something I just can't put my finger on. My cogs and sprockets are turning.

Will investigate further tonight.

I have a bitter sweet report to share with everyone, hopefully I can get it together late tonight if not tomorrow.

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Rudi said...

Hi Johnny-
I didn't have a chance until tonight to read the comments you had posted here earlier. Now here I am and... Did you need to make some changes before you put them back up? It looked very interesting, and I'm looking forward to reading it later.
When you said earlier,
"The Fire and Crystal conference sounds eerily reminiscent to something I just can't put my finger on. My cogs and sprockets are turning." I have spent several nights myself, having trouble falling asleep, praying and thinking about the info Constance gave us in that link, with the same thought. Something I can't quite bring forward from the back of my mind and also doing alot of internet searching. Rudi