By Prensa Latina
Washington : US President George W. Bush began on Monday a European tour to request additional troops for the occupation of Afghanistan, where insurgency increases and there are differences among the participants in the war.
According to The Washington Post daily, the president will try to convince his allies of the need to reinforce the military presence in the Central Asian nation, while part his hosts is trying meet those needs with moderate troop increase.
Other governments, including Canada, are in favor of abandoning the combats and focus on training the local military forces.
The US Defense Department top commands are insisting on greater military deployment to counteract the actions by the resistance, especially active in the country’s southern area.
There is nothing more important in Bush’s agenda than being able to reverse the Afghan situation, National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley admitted.
Gen. Dan McNeill was even more categorical, when saying: “send more troops or accept a very long war.”
McNeill, top leader of the occupying troops, estimated that the 55,000 current soldiers, including 27,000 US troops, will have to be in Afghanistan from three to five years to restore the order and leave control in the hands of Kabul’s authorities.
Part of the White House allies disagrees with reinforcing their presence, starting from the precedent that it would create, faced with future conflicts, said Julianne Smith, head of the European program in the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Bush’s tour began on Monday in Ukraine and will have its decisive moment at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Summit, to be held in Bucharest, Romania, from April 2-4.