Text Fwd: Afghanistan: UK - NATO's First Ground War To Shape 21st Century

Informed in StopNATO

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7944826.stm
Afghanistan: UK - NATO's First Ground War To Shape 21st Century
Sun Mar 15, 2009 7:36 pm (PDT)
BBC News March 15, 2009

Afghan war 'will shape century'

-Mr Hutton said the Ministry of Defence was going to "focus very heavily" over the next year on changes to training and equipment.
Asked if he was describing a "policy transformation" Mr Hutton said: "Yes. And I think this is going to affect the armed forces of all of the Nato countries.

Defence Secretary John Hutton has said the Afghanistan war is a "fundamentally important" one which will "define much of the politics of the 21st century".

He said Nato's European members must do more if it was to "come through this test of its resolve and character".

Lessons learned there and in Iraq would lead to a "transformation" of policy by the UK Ministry of Defence.

He also told the BBC troops could leave when Afghan forces could "manage the insurgency at an appropriate level".

Mr Hutton sought to set out the goals of the mission in interviews for BBC One's Politics Show and BBC Radio 4's the World this Weekend ahead of meeting his US counterpart this week.
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'Heavy lifting'

Asked if the mission had changed to a counter-insurgency one, Mr Hutton said lessons had to be learned from the "complicated operations" in Iraq and Afghanistan as they were going to "define the characteristics of future conflict for decades" and "much of the politics of the 21st Century".

Mr Hutton said the Ministry of Defence was going to "focus very heavily" over the next year on changes to training and equipment.

Asked if he was describing a "policy transformation" Mr Hutton said: "Yes. And I think this is going to affect the armed forces of all of the Nato countries.

"This is the challenge for our generation and it's a good thing in a sense. We don't run the risk of inter-state warfare threatening European homeland security but we do face a very significant international threat to our way of life, our values - maybe not our borders but our values, from international terrorism.

"So we've all got to be part of this learning exercise in Nato, all the way through the alliance, we've all got to learn the lessons of the last few years."

He also said that European members of Nato had to do more and not expect the US to do all the "heavy lifting".

Death toll

The defence secretary's comments come the day after a soldier from the 2nd Battalion, Royal Welsh Regiment was killed in an explosion in Musa Qala in northern Helmand.

He has been named as Lance Corporal Christopher Harkett, 22, from The 2nd Battalion, Royal Welsh Regiment.

His death brings the number of British service personnel killed in Afghanistan since operations began in 2001 to 150.
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Stop NATO

* Related article*
http://www.counterpunch.org/johnstone03132009.html
French Kissing : NATO's Global Mission Creep
By DIANA JOHNSTONE
(Informed by Bruce Gagnon)