NATO wants Muslim troop support in Afghanistan

Some of these countries, he said in an interview with the Berlingske Tidende newspaper, believe this is possible some time in the future but have made no decision thus far.

The former Danish Prime Minister feels that the involvement of Muslim troops in fighting in Afghanistan could help win the ongoing war. Anders Fogh Rasmussen stressed that fighting in Afghanistan has nothing to do with religion and has been prompted by terrorists and extremists. The Voice of Russia-polled experts believe that NATO's Secretary-General would thus like to revive the old belief whereby fighting in Afghanistan would gain in legitimacy if it weren't seen as one between the infidels and Muslims. One should hardly expect a major military victory just because Muslim countries join in the NATO operation in Afghanistan, but Brussels obviously looks to earning additional dividends in the propaganda support campaign that the Alliance is conducting in the Islamic world. But this is almost hoping against hope, says an expert on oriental affairs Andrei Volodin in an interview with the Voice of Russia, and elaborates.

In the first place, Andrei Volodin says, Mr. Rasmussen is not so much setting forth his own stance, as relaying the position of NATO's leaders. That's number one. Number two is that one doesn't win wars in Afghanistan. This follows from the record of at least three Anglo-Afghan wars, the record of Soviet troops' stationing in that country and the results of the US-led NATO troops' fighting in Afghanistan since 2001. Therefore it is rather illusory to hope that involving Muslim countries' soldiers in military action in Afghanistan will bear fruit. What's more, Muslim countries will hardly agree to fight on the territory of another Muslim nation. And it's next to impossible to explain to the Muslim countries' governments, to say nothing of these countries' peoples, that fighting in Afghanistan is against the unrighteous Taliban militants or the unrighteous Muslims. Mr. Rasmussen's interview only serves to prove that as long as the US and other NATO countries' troops remain in Afghanistan, they will be able to attain only limited objectives, despite an increase in the strength of their troops in the near future. These objectives are limited to keeping the situation in Kabul and other cities visibly calm. Therefore I think, the Russian expert says, that one shouldn't take this kind of statements seriously.

In general, one gets the impression that Mr. Rasmussen's statement is in line with the recently galvanized attempts to find a way out of the deadlock that the alliance troops have reached in Afghanistan. The previously made moves to that end are the attempts to revise the US and NATO's strategy for the Asian country, the criticism of the current Afghan leaders' policy and also reports on a likely dialogue with the so-called moderate Taliban members. But so far there's been no sign of the coalition troops' success in practical terms in Afghanistan since NATO launched its military operation in the Asian country eight years ago.