ianstone
06-12-2010, 06:21 AM
Gates: Countering IEDs top priority for NATO
BRUSSELS — Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday that countering improvised explosive devices has become a high priority for NATO and that the United States has already begun to put training for IED detection high on its list.
Gates’ remarks came at a news conference after a NATO defense ministers meeting, and he said the United States would soon move accelerate its anti-IED training from seven to 11 countries.
Gates said that Congress had approved the purchase of 100 MRAP “vehicles that we can share with allies” and that arrangements were being made for NATO countries to buy them if they wanted. He also said the United States was providing access to computer databases with lessons learned from IED incidents, and was putting in place aerostats and other equipment to better spot them being planted by insurgents and to track the networks planting them.
Discussing organization finances, Gates said “NATO has outdated structures that bear little relevance for our needs today” and that “we must have a lean but flexible organization.” The defense secretary called for 14 NATO agencies that cost $5 billion to be cut to three and for staff reductions at NATO headquarters.
“We can’t expect sign changes in the military structure and the agencies without reductions at NATO HQ itself,” he said.
On Thursday, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said NATO “has already found 1.5 billion euros [$1.8 billion] in savings, over the next four years, from our military budget” and that it “will cut the number of committees in this building [NATO headquarters in Brussels] by three-quarters, to less than 100, which means fewer meetings and more efficiency.”
On the threat from Iran, Gates said intelligence officials estimate that production of a sufficient quantity of bomb-quality uranium will occur within one to three years, not including weaponization and delivery systems.
Discussing Afghanistan, Rasmussen described the 130,000 Afghan soldiers and 100,000 Afghan police in Afghanistan as “a real success” and that, “as they get ever better at defending their country, we will be able to take on a supporting role.” He said that about 450 trainers were still needed for NATO’s training mission there.
NATO cites Afghan 'progress', US pleads for patience
(AFP) – 19 hours ago
BRUSSELS — NATO touted "measured progress" in Afghanistan as US Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Friday pleaded for patience with the war effort, saying a new strategy needed time to take root.
"Operations across Afghanistan are making measured progress in extending the reach of the Afghan government, changing the political conditions, and marginalising the insurgency," NATO defence ministers said in a statement at a two-day meeting in Brussels.
"Significant challenges remain, and success is not yet assured," the statement said, "but we are encouraged by recent results."
The ministers cited "particular efforts in central Helmand and Kandahar", where NATO-led forces have taken on Taliban strongholds.
After nearly nine years of war and declining public support, military commanders are under mounting political pressure to show signs of success in Afghanistan.
But the US defence chief said a promising new approach -- backed up with reinforcements -- had only been adopted months earlier under General Stanley McChrystal, who took command a year ago.
"As far as I'm concerned this endeavour began in full, and reasonably resourced only a few months ago. A counter-insurgency takes a good bit of time," Gates told a news conference after the meeting.
He said Afghanistan had been neglected by Washington after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, with too few troops deployed, and that the Taliban had the initiative up until last year.
NATO ministers believed the war effort was headed in the right direction but Gates said there would be a "long and difficult" fight ahead, with proof of progress still "tentative".
"No one would deny that the signs of progress are tentative at this point, that they are almost anecdotal," he said.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said coalition operations underway aimed at "the heart of Taliban territory".
The Taliban are aware that if they lose the support of the population in the south, it would represent "a serious failure" and were therefore putting up "dogged resistance", he said in a statement to the ministers.
"But we can already see the results, and we will stay the course."
He spoke a day after the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, McChrystal, said a pivotal operation in the Taliban's birthplace -- Kandahar -- will move at a slower pace than initially planned.
The delay was due to a shortage of Afghan security forces, officers said, as well as the need to reassure local leaders and win the trust of a wary population, which -- like the Taliban leadership -- is mainly Pashtun.
Gates said the operation in Kandahar, like the broader war effort, would take months of persistent work.
"What my expectation and what my hope is by the end of the year, we will be able to demonstrate that we have the right strategy, and that we are making progress throughout the country," he said.
US President Barack Obama has ordered 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, with allies sending 10,000 reinforcements, while promising the start of a withdrawal of American forces in July 2011.
Rasmussen said a gradual handover to Afghan forces was crucial and it was possible the "transition" could begin by the end of the year.
But he said that "transition does not mean withdrawal," with a continuing role for foreign troops as Afghan forces improve.
The NATO chief said allies had yet to meet a shortfall of 450 military trainers, needed to assist Afghan security forces. But he said the gap was not because allies were unwilling to help but because they lacked qualified officers for the job.
The US military has sent in 800 trainers as a temporary move to meet the shortfall, and Gates said the Pentagon expected European instructors to arrive by the autumn to take over.
NATO, anxious to ease the pressure on supply routes through volatile parts of Pakistan, also announced a new supply line for non-lethal cargo for the mission in Afghanistan, via Russia and Central Asia.
The first trainload of supplies arrived on June 9.
The man should know what he is talking about
BRUSSELS — Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday that countering improvised explosive devices has become a high priority for NATO and that the United States has already begun to put training for IED detection high on its list.
Gates’ remarks came at a news conference after a NATO defense ministers meeting, and he said the United States would soon move accelerate its anti-IED training from seven to 11 countries.
Gates said that Congress had approved the purchase of 100 MRAP “vehicles that we can share with allies” and that arrangements were being made for NATO countries to buy them if they wanted. He also said the United States was providing access to computer databases with lessons learned from IED incidents, and was putting in place aerostats and other equipment to better spot them being planted by insurgents and to track the networks planting them.
Discussing organization finances, Gates said “NATO has outdated structures that bear little relevance for our needs today” and that “we must have a lean but flexible organization.” The defense secretary called for 14 NATO agencies that cost $5 billion to be cut to three and for staff reductions at NATO headquarters.
“We can’t expect sign changes in the military structure and the agencies without reductions at NATO HQ itself,” he said.
On Thursday, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said NATO “has already found 1.5 billion euros [$1.8 billion] in savings, over the next four years, from our military budget” and that it “will cut the number of committees in this building [NATO headquarters in Brussels] by three-quarters, to less than 100, which means fewer meetings and more efficiency.”
On the threat from Iran, Gates said intelligence officials estimate that production of a sufficient quantity of bomb-quality uranium will occur within one to three years, not including weaponization and delivery systems.
Discussing Afghanistan, Rasmussen described the 130,000 Afghan soldiers and 100,000 Afghan police in Afghanistan as “a real success” and that, “as they get ever better at defending their country, we will be able to take on a supporting role.” He said that about 450 trainers were still needed for NATO’s training mission there.
NATO cites Afghan 'progress', US pleads for patience
(AFP) – 19 hours ago
BRUSSELS — NATO touted "measured progress" in Afghanistan as US Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Friday pleaded for patience with the war effort, saying a new strategy needed time to take root.
"Operations across Afghanistan are making measured progress in extending the reach of the Afghan government, changing the political conditions, and marginalising the insurgency," NATO defence ministers said in a statement at a two-day meeting in Brussels.
"Significant challenges remain, and success is not yet assured," the statement said, "but we are encouraged by recent results."
The ministers cited "particular efforts in central Helmand and Kandahar", where NATO-led forces have taken on Taliban strongholds.
After nearly nine years of war and declining public support, military commanders are under mounting political pressure to show signs of success in Afghanistan.
But the US defence chief said a promising new approach -- backed up with reinforcements -- had only been adopted months earlier under General Stanley McChrystal, who took command a year ago.
"As far as I'm concerned this endeavour began in full, and reasonably resourced only a few months ago. A counter-insurgency takes a good bit of time," Gates told a news conference after the meeting.
He said Afghanistan had been neglected by Washington after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, with too few troops deployed, and that the Taliban had the initiative up until last year.
NATO ministers believed the war effort was headed in the right direction but Gates said there would be a "long and difficult" fight ahead, with proof of progress still "tentative".
"No one would deny that the signs of progress are tentative at this point, that they are almost anecdotal," he said.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said coalition operations underway aimed at "the heart of Taliban territory".
The Taliban are aware that if they lose the support of the population in the south, it would represent "a serious failure" and were therefore putting up "dogged resistance", he said in a statement to the ministers.
"But we can already see the results, and we will stay the course."
He spoke a day after the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, McChrystal, said a pivotal operation in the Taliban's birthplace -- Kandahar -- will move at a slower pace than initially planned.
The delay was due to a shortage of Afghan security forces, officers said, as well as the need to reassure local leaders and win the trust of a wary population, which -- like the Taliban leadership -- is mainly Pashtun.
Gates said the operation in Kandahar, like the broader war effort, would take months of persistent work.
"What my expectation and what my hope is by the end of the year, we will be able to demonstrate that we have the right strategy, and that we are making progress throughout the country," he said.
US President Barack Obama has ordered 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, with allies sending 10,000 reinforcements, while promising the start of a withdrawal of American forces in July 2011.
Rasmussen said a gradual handover to Afghan forces was crucial and it was possible the "transition" could begin by the end of the year.
But he said that "transition does not mean withdrawal," with a continuing role for foreign troops as Afghan forces improve.
The NATO chief said allies had yet to meet a shortfall of 450 military trainers, needed to assist Afghan security forces. But he said the gap was not because allies were unwilling to help but because they lacked qualified officers for the job.
The US military has sent in 800 trainers as a temporary move to meet the shortfall, and Gates said the Pentagon expected European instructors to arrive by the autumn to take over.
NATO, anxious to ease the pressure on supply routes through volatile parts of Pakistan, also announced a new supply line for non-lethal cargo for the mission in Afghanistan, via Russia and Central Asia.
The first trainload of supplies arrived on June 9.
The man should know what he is talking about