Mobilizing NATO for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

• Author: Sempa, Francis P.
• Position: North Atlantic Treaty Organization - Brief article

Mobilizing NATO for Afghanistan and Pakistan

http://64.177.72.250/blog/?p=425

By David M. Abshire, President, Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress

In a recent commentary released by the Center, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO David Abshire advocated mobilizing NATO to achieve victory over Al Qaeda and its allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Abshire called NATO "once the greatest alliance in human history," one that "won the Cold War without firing a shot." He lamented, however, that it "is not meeting its challenge in the 21st Century."

One reason for this failure, writes Abshire, was the U.S. "strategic blunder" of starting a second war in Iraq before winning the first war in Afghanistan. Abshire also advises President Obama to learn from the successful NATO diplomacy of Ronald Reagan near the end of the Cold War and George H.W. Bush during the first Gulf War.

The current war in Afghanistan, Abshire writes, is at a crisis point, and the President is receiving conflicting advice from his war cabinet. Abshire characterizes General Stanley McChrystal's proposed surge strategy as bold, innovative, and troop...