In the Green Room: Amb. Kurt Volker on NATO and Afghanistan

Posted October 9th, 2009 at 9.44am in American Leadership, Protect America.

“We have to decide to win [in Afghanistan],” said Ambassador Volker last week at the Heritage Foundation. He was quoting former Spanish President José Maria Aznar in the meeting they just had with Heritage officials, but the U.S.’s 19th Permanent Representative to NATO and Senior Fellow and Managing Director of the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University agrees. The will to win, combined with a counter-insurgency strategy that provides domestic security to Afghans is the first step, he says.

From that point I think you have to listen to your military commanders and say: “tell me what you need in order to execute that strategy and succeed.”

Volker’s long career lends keen insight to his analysis of the Obama administration’s decision to scrap missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, two strong allies of the U.S. “The missile defense issue was never really the issue,” he says. It demonstrates that NATO is deeply divided over a resurgent Russia. “[NATO must] get a single coherent strategy on Russia.”

Author: Gerrit Lansing
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October 9, 2009 Ham Lake MN writes:

The Marxist Gov. we now have is creating many crisis to break the spirt of the American people. The Afgan war is only part of it.

It was the common person who stood his ground at Lexington and Concord, not elected Leadership, Lawyers, or Military. (Where are the real Americans?)

Obama, Pelosi, and the rest must be arrested for treason.

IF FREEDOM IS NOT WORTH THE RISK OF FIGHTING, WHAT IS?

October 9, 2009 Louis L Cesar F Levy DAYTON OH writes:

Good catch Gerrit. Is is only reasonable to ask: if a sovereign does not listen to his General who else is he listening?
Wide ears are mostly chosen by the WHISPERERS who subtly SUGGEST point after point to DISMANTLE our SECURITY DISPOSITIF so that on the oncoming Great War or FINAL STAGE they win easily. It is less Russia however than the Great Enemy who mastered all these Terrorists and Terrorist States. It is still some time to wake UP to this REALITY and TRUTH. Turning somebody to a TROJAN HORSE is one of their specialities, so don’t be fooled.

October 9, 2009 Frederick Hallett, Arnold MD writes:

Domestic politics aside, is it not reasonable, particularly for a new President who was elected by promoting “change we can believe in”, to review the policies of his predecessor before adopting them as his own? Much has changed since President Bush first defined our mission in Afghanistan. Eight years have passed. General Jones, National Security Advisor, correctly in my opinion, is urging the President to rethink the U.S. mission based on the situation in Afghanistan today, with perhaps only 100 Al Qaeda members left in the country. The redefined mission will dictate the strategy; the strategy will dictate the resources and troop levels required. Makes sense to me!

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