Posted by
KomareX blog on Tuesday, December 01, 2009 5:47:24 AM
US and UK troop surges in Afghanistan will ensure a "full-scale counter-insurgency" against the Taliban is possible, David Miliband has said.
The foreign secretary said it was important Afghans developed a "loyalty to their own state", which needed a "thoroughgoing political strategy".
The UK has pledged 500 more troops to Afghanistan, with the US widely expected to promise a further 30,000.
Mr Miliband said the two countries' strategies were "very consistent".
Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced on Monday that the UK would be sending 500 extra troops, taking the total to 10,000.
He said the Nato coalition was seeking a "major" expansion of the Afghan army from 90,000 to 134,000, with the aim that local forces would eventually assume sole responsibility.
US President Barack Obama, who has held a video conference with Mr Brown, is to give details of his plans later.
'Essential'
Mr Miliband told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "President Obama set out his strategy in March this year. It's very consistent with the strategy the prime minister has set out.
"It's about building Afghan forces so they can defend their own country."
He said the boost in overseas troop numbers and the planned expansion of the Afghan army would ensure a "a thoroughgoing campaign to ensure that the people of Afghanistan... look forward to a loyalty to their own state which is essential to any counter-insurgency."
Mr Miliband stressed the need to involve other countries, particularly Pakistan, in ensuring Afghanistan's stability.
He said: "The neighbours really matter in Afghanistan. We all know that Afghanistan has been a chess board for the neighbours of Afghanistan."
Asked whether western leaders were trying to bypass the regime of President Hamid Karzai, in favour of talking to local leaders, in an effort to bring stability to Afghanistan, Mr Miliband said: "That wouldn't be right. We have been arguing and talking about the importance of local engagement for more than two years...
"Afghanistan is a tribal society, a society of 40,000 villages."
Leaders briefed
He added: "We are not trying to create a colony in Afghanistan."
Mr Obama will make his announcement later in a televised speech to cadets at the US Military Academy at West Point.
He has already briefed military and foreign leaders on the deployment, reportedly of 30,000 additional troops.
The US currently has about 68,000 troops in Afghanistan, with foreign forces overall totalling more than 100,000.
Earlier this year, the US military commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, warned that America risked failure in Afghanistan unless troop numbers were increased.
He requested 40,000 more soldiers, but Mr Obama is expected to order around 30,000 to the country.