Thursday, March 6, 2008

NATO to Ask Russia for Help in Afghanistan?

NATO which was originally created to counter the Soviet Union is now asking Russia for logistical help, the transportation of troops and equipment through Russia to Afghanistan. Pretty weak, but understandably when NATO equipment is damaged when transported through Pakistan. Who's to say that won't happen in Russia either.

On a side note, it should be time to scrap NATO a cold war organization. In it's place we should create a new alliance against today's threat...Jihadists.


BRUSSELS -- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, meeting today to consider new strategies to bring development and peace to increasingly violent Afghanistan, is looking to its old Cold War rival for help.

NATO is seeking assistance from Russia even though Afghans on both sides of the current struggle have bitter memories of the old Soviet Union's brutal 1979 invasion and decade-long occupation that ended in a humiliating withdrawal of troops by Moscow.
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The transatlantic alliance will stop short of asking for Russian troops or the dreaded attack helicopters used in Afghanistan during the 1980s, since that would represent a huge propaganda coup for the Taliban insurgents.

But NATO is interested in Russian help in transporting equipment and troops into Afghanistan through Russian territory, officials said Wednesday.

The Russian government could make contributions that would include "regular use of Russian transport means to get supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan [and] possible Russian contributions to the re-equipment of the Afghan army," said Robert Simmons, NATO's special envoy for the Caucasus and Central Asia, according to a report by Agence France-Presse.

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