EU Likes Obama's Afghan Strategy: Promises 'Civilian Surge'

No only does the EU like Obama's Afghanistan strategy, they like it because it is a European-style-strategy. They like it so much that they are answering President Obama's call for the rest of the world to help with the battle. Sure...we'll send help. We will provide a "civilian surge." What?

Afghanistan - Zabul Province

U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Adam Mancini

Read the entire article at DW-WORLD.DE

"(Obama's) new strategy comes very close to the European ideas about the mission in Afghanistan," said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier during informal EU talks in the Czech Republic on Friday, March 27.

The US president unveiled his administration's strategic review for Afghanistan in a renewed effort to stabilize the country, saying a major goal will be to shut down the al-Qaeda terrorist network in Afghanistan and Pakistan using a bolstered troop presence.

"We have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future," Obama said.

The announcement came at a time when violence in Afghanistan is at its highest level since US-led forces invaded in 2001 to oust the Taliban from power.

It echoed a long-standing European view that the Taliban insurgency cannot be defeated by military means alone. Instead, the US is now planning a wider approach to the problem, involving Pakistan and other regional players, and helping Afghanistan take care of its own security.

"I believe that the president's announcement today will strike a very strong chord with Europeans," said British Foreign Minister David Miliband, whose country is the second-largest contributor after the US to NATO's operations in Afghanistan.

The bottom line is, several countries are clamoring to help train the Afghan police (and that's a good thing), but no one wants to fight the Taliban, even though President Obama said today, we will defeat them. In today's speech, the President said we have a goal:

...to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaida in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and prevent their return to either country in the future.

This is good. I wonder where they'll go. One thing is certain, it won't be Iraq. Here's more:

And to the terrorists who oppose us, my message is the same: we will defeat you.

I'm liking it. The U.S. military has learned a lot in Iraq. Now they will take this hard-earned knowledge go Afghanistan, and we must pray that the bureaucrats, both political and military will let our brave men and woman fight this fight and get it over with. Much of this would have been accomplished years ago if it were not for our pitiful, pandering and cowardly Congress.

This is not simply an American problem - far from it, Obama said.

Afghanistan is "an international security challenge of the highest order....The safety of people around the world is at stake."

It's worth asking once again: where's the part about all the other countries actually fighting alongside us...because now the World has warm and fuzzy feelings about us...us and our brave new leader? Hellooooooo. Is anyone other than the Brits coming to fight? We will disrupt, dismantle, and defeat the agitators of the Afghan people, as well as the entire free world - but the whole messy thing isn't a war, and the Taliban and al-Qaeda are not an "enemy." It's just all one big Overseas Contingency Operation, and that's that. Did you hear a timeline for getting out of Afghanistan? I didn't either. About the above photo: U.S. Army Spc. Stephen Highberger, left, and Pvt. Charles Joiner sit in a patrol base on an overnight mission near Forward Operation Base Lane in Zabul province, Afghanistan, March 13, 2009. Highberger and Joiner are assigned to Company B, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment.