On December 3, NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg admitted that the military bloc is not going to withdraw from Afghanistan in any scenario.
“The challenge in Afghanistan is great.
And Allies have suffered fatalities in recent months. As have Afghan forces and civilians.
We must continue to ensure that the country never again becomes a safe haven for international terrorists. Over the past months, we have stepped up our support – with more forces and funding, Because the cost of leaving is bigger than the cost of staying,” Stoltenberg said during a press briefing at a pre-ministerial meeting in NATO headquarters.
He once again repeated that NATO has to keep its military presence in the war-torn country in order to defend NATO states from terrorist attacks planned inside Afghanistan.
“It’s important for NATO to keep its presence in Afghanistan because we have to prevent Afghanistan from, once again, becoming a platform to plan, organise, to execute terrorist attacks against our own countries. It cannot once again become a safe haven for international terrorists. There is a high cost of staying in Afghanistan – there’s a high financial cost for NATO Allies and there is a high human cost – we have had fatalities. Also, last week’s. But, we have to compare the cost of staying with the cost of leaving and if NATO and NATO Allies left Afghanistan we have to be prepared that there is a high risk that Taliban will come back and that different terrorist organisations will be able to gain ground and establish strong footholds in Afghanistan.
For instance, we know that Al Qaeda is there, we know that ISIS is there, and we know that ISIS is working with the core ISIS in Levant, and also they have networks stretching into Europe. So, this is about helping Afghanistan but it’s also about helping ourselves. It’s about making our citizens more secure by avoiding that ISIS, Al Qaeda or the terrorist organisations are able to really re-establish themselves in Afghanistan. We have to remember that we have been fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria for years and we have made a lot of progress. But we have to be sure that the Caliphate ISIS lost in Iraq and in Syria is not re-established in Afghanistan. And that’s one of the reasons why we are there, and I visited Afghanistan recently and I’m impressed by the commitment, the courage and the professionalism of the Afghan forces and we continue to train, assist and advise them.” he said answering to a question from Radio Free Europe.
Thus, while the US is allegedly seeking to support a peace deal between the Kabul government and the Taliban, NATO is openly declaring that any kind of the peace will not lead to NATO/US troops withdrawal from the country.
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Staying in Afghanistan will be a little harder for all foreign forces. May be they can bear average 5 deaths per day of their intruders and butchers.
40 years of US and NATO invasion on Afghanistan but failed to achieve any goal except butchery of Afghani nation. Now these bunch of losers will blame others for their failure.
Admitting failure is worse than death to Americans, if they do withdraw, they will claim they won. The US won’t make peace with North Korea, because it would mean admitting defeat. With Vietnam they alternate between claiming they won, and blaming it all on Nixon.
So they same kind of ‘ we must stay the course’ and ‘Afghanistan must never become a haven for foreign terrorist’ bullshit we’ve come to expect from all NATO general secretaries. Then again, one of the prerequisites to getting the job is to spout whatever bullshit Washington wants you to say. Otherwise no job. I could say shame on you, Denmark, for giving us this asshole. But who am I to say, the Netherlands provided Jaap de Hoop-Scheffer. Who was just as bad.
Jens Stoltenberg is Norwegian, but I agree that the worst of the worst of Danish politicians allways gets big jobs in either NATO or EU.
Anders Fool Rasmussen is the garbage from Denmark this dude replaced
Profits from opium are far too sweet to let go.
Oh the lunatic hypocrisy.
“For instance, we know that Al Qaeda is there, we know that ISIS is there, and we know that ISIS is working with the core ISIS in Levant, and also they have networks stretching into Europe. So, this is about helping Afghanistan but it’s also about helping ourselves.”
Gee wonder who created and still funds them ?.
I think the US plans to use ISIS to fight the Taliban. al Qaeda fought for the US against Russia. The US has a long history of committing terrorist attacks via its many mercenary armies. The Beslan school massacre is one of their more barbaric terror attacks.