Comments on: Canadians say get troops out of Afghanistan http://dearkitty.blogsome.com/2008/03/15/canadians-say-get-troops-out-of-afghanistan/ My diary on peace and wars, arts, sciences, politics, the fight for economic and social justice, the environment, and more. Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:04:21 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=1.5.1-alpha by: Administrator http://dearkitty.blogsome.com/2008/03/15/canadians-say-get-troops-out-of-afghanistan/#comment-3454 Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:21:27 +0000 http://dearkitty.blogsome.com/2008/03/15/canadians-say-get-troops-out-of-afghanistan/#comment-3454 NATO may ask Russians for logistics help in Afghanistan Peter O’Neil, Canwest News Service Published: Wednesday, March 05, 2008 BRUSSELS -- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, meeting today to consider new strategies to bring development and peace to increasingly violent Afghanistan, is looking to its old Cold War rival for help. NATO is seeking assistance from Russia even though Afghans on both sides of the current struggle have bitter memories of the old Soviet Union's brutal 1979 invasion and decade-long occupation that ended in a humiliating withdrawal of troops by Moscow. The transatlantic alliance will stop short of asking for Russian troops or the dreaded attack helicopters used in Afghanistan during the 1980s, since that would represent a huge propaganda coup for the Taliban insurgents. But NATO is interested in Russian help in transporting equipment and troops into Afghanistan through Russian territory, officials said Wednesday. The Russian government could make contributions that would include "regular use of Russian transport means to get supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan [and] possible Russian contributions to the re-equipment of the Afghan army," said Robert Simmons, NATO's special envoy for the Caucasus and Central Asia, according to a report by Agence France-Presse. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier, who arrived here Wednesday for a meeting with European Union officials to discuss Canada-EU trade as well as the Afghanistan mission, was not immediately available for comment on the matter. But Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government has been particularly cool towards Russia, not sending a congratulatory message this week to newly elected President Dmitry Medvedev. The Harper government twice last year issued sternly worded official statements questioning Moscow's slippery slide away from democracy under former president Vladamir Putin, who hand-picked Medvedev as his successor. NATO foreign ministers, led by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, will be confronted today by one of the many examples of flagging public support for the Afghanistan mission -- Canada's ultimatum that it will withdraw its 2,500 troops from the dangerous Kandahar region unless NATO finds substantial reinforcements. Bernier plans to reiterate once again to colleagues that Canada will follow through on its threat unless it gets a 1,000-troop reinforcement and better equipment such as transport helicopters. The gathering sets the stage for a NATO summit in Bucharest next month at which Harper is expected to find out if his diplomatic gambit will yield fruit. NATO may ask Russians for logistics help in Afghanistan

Peter O’Neil, Canwest News Service

Published: Wednesday, March 05, 2008

BRUSSELS — The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, meeting today to consider new strategies to bring development and peace to increasingly violent Afghanistan, is looking to its old Cold War rival for help.

NATO is seeking assistance from Russia even though Afghans on both sides of the current struggle have bitter memories of the old Soviet Union’s brutal 1979 invasion and decade-long occupation that ended in a humiliating withdrawal of troops by Moscow.

The transatlantic alliance will stop short of asking for Russian troops or the dreaded attack helicopters used in Afghanistan during the 1980s, since that would represent a huge propaganda coup for the Taliban insurgents.

But NATO is interested in Russian help in transporting equipment and troops into Afghanistan through Russian territory, officials said Wednesday.

The Russian government could make contributions that would include “regular use of Russian transport means to get supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan [and] possible Russian contributions to the re-equipment of the Afghan army,” said Robert Simmons, NATO’s special envoy for the Caucasus and Central Asia, according to a report by Agence France-Presse.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier, who arrived here Wednesday for a meeting with European Union officials to discuss Canada-EU trade as well as the Afghanistan mission, was not immediately available for comment on the matter.

But Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government has been particularly cool towards Russia, not sending a congratulatory message this week to newly elected President Dmitry Medvedev.

The Harper government twice last year issued sternly worded official statements questioning Moscow’s slippery slide away from democracy under former president Vladamir Putin, who hand-picked Medvedev as his successor.

NATO foreign ministers, led by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, will be confronted today by one of the many examples of flagging public support for the Afghanistan mission — Canada’s ultimatum that it will withdraw its 2,500 troops from the dangerous Kandahar region unless NATO finds substantial reinforcements.

Bernier plans to reiterate once again to colleagues that Canada will follow through on its threat unless it gets a 1,000-troop reinforcement and better equipment such as transport helicopters.

The gathering sets the stage for a NATO summit in Bucharest next month at which Harper is expected to find out if his diplomatic gambit will yield fruit.

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