Word: nato
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...palace of the parliament in Bucharest, they like to say in Romania, is the second largest building in the world, trumped only by the Pentagon. It will need all its space when NATO leaders start their summit there on April 2. Heads of government of most of the 26 states that make up the world's largest military alliance will show up, as well as guests such as Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, whose nations are deploying troops alongside NATO allies in Afghanistan and other far-flung places...
...guest list did not extend, however, to Majeed Khan, a tribal leader in the rugged Uruzgan region of southern Afghanistan. That's a shame. Khan would have told his hosts some home truths. He would prefer to see more of NATO, if he could, because in recent months his region has been invaded by Taliban insurgents. "We cannot stop them from coming into our areas [because] there are no soldiers to stop them," said Khan earlier this month. "The soldiers [from NATO] come into the area, but then they leave and the Taliban come back. We don't encourage...
...Bucharest summit, the long war in Afghanistan will be both the most important issue on the agenda, and, in a larger sense, a metaphor for a needed debate about NATO's purpose - a debate about what it is supposed to do, and what each of its members is expected to contribute to its mission. Nearly two decades after the end of the cold war - which NATO decisively won without firing a shot in anger - the business of refocusing the alliance remains a work in progress. NATO forces are involved in peacekeeping in the Balkans, and its political leaders are concerned...
...Bucharest, the U.S., Canada and others have called on a handful of European countries to increase their troop and equipment contributions to the Afghan war. Speaking to European leaders in Germany last month, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned that NATO "must not - cannot - become a two-tiered alliance of those who are willing to fight and those who are not." But according to commanders on the ground in Afghanistan, that two-tiered alliance is already here. While French President Nicolas Sarkozy is widely expected to announce at the summit that he is sending another 1,000 French troops...
...terrorism." And hidden in those rifts are yet other questions: about the capability of some of Europe's armed forces, and even the future of the alliance itself. Australia's Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon complained in February of a complete "lack of common objectives" among the NATO allies. "Someone needs to read the riot act to NATO," fumes retired U.S. General Anthony Zinni, the former U.S. central command chief. "They've got to live up to their alliance responsibilities." (Of the 43,250 troops currently in Afghanistan under NATO command, the U.S. has contributed some 15,000, and has another...