Morning:
9°c
WORLD: Barack Obama: Rest of world must help US and Britain
Paul Thompson, in Miami15.07.09
The responsibility for making Afghanistan secure and stable must be shared by nations other than the US and Britain, Barack Obama warned today.
The US president described the fight against the Taliban and extremists as a “worldwide issue”.
Obama also spoke for the first time about the need for an exit strategy — despite committing
more than 17,000 extra troops to the battlefield.
His comments came after the bodies of eight British soldiers were flown back to RAF Lyneham
for a solemn welcome by hundreds of people who lined the streets of Wootton Bassett.
Mr Obama, who earlier this week praised the British forces and their role in Afghanistan, said other nations must be prepared to shoulder the burden.
He said: “The issue in Afghanistan is not simply an American issue, it is a worldwide issue.
“If you look at how al Qaeda has operated, they consider the West to be one undifferentiated set of countries, and they will exploit whatever weaknesses are there.”
He made his comments after meeting Dutch prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende at the White House. The Dutch are one of the few countries in Europe to send soldiers to Afghanistan, with 1,700 of their troops based in the country.
Mr Obama said he was hopeful the 20 August presidential elections would be a watershed for
the country.
He also hopes it will allow military planners to look at withdrawing some of the 58,000 US troops in the country.
While committing huge numbers of forces to the fight, Mr Obama has made it clear he does not want to get bogged down in Afghanistan, where US
forces have been fighting since 2001.
He said: “I think that all of us want to see an effective exit strategy where increasingly the
Afghan army, Afghan police, Afghan courts, Afghan government are taking more responsibility
for their own security.”
Reader views (2)
I totally agree with Frank, in Europe the only country that has taken part en-masse in any major conflict or war since the start of the last century to present day is Britain and all it seems like is that these other so called European cousins want do is use our knowledge, resources and experience gathered over the last century to make themselves look good. We are home to the worlds premier Special forces group with arguably the most professional of soldiers the only thing letting us down is lack of equipment which you could blame on our politicians who are constantly telling us there is know shortage of funds for in one instance but then in the other hand are underhandedly dipping their greasy hands into the tax payers coffers to pay for there second homes and there duck ponds, this is cash that could be serving the brave men and women of this country. I rest my case
- Wilton, London
I hardly think our EU 'Partners' are interested or have the balls for fighting. Look at the support we got over Iran, especially from the Swedish. That is why they want the UK so badly to sign up wholesale to the EU Constitution, so they get an EU (UK) army and we get cowardly EU Generals sending English men to their deaths.
The Spanish withdrew their troops as soon as they got attacked by Muslim terrorists. Our EU 'Allies' are cowards. 20 billion to the EU a year for what?
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
