Over the next few week NATO forces will order substantially more troops into Afghanistan. The alliance's secretary general predicts that they will engage in broad counter-insurgent strategy pending President Obama's decision on what course to take.
In Edinburgh at a NATO parliamentary assembly, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said: "In a few weeks, I expect we will decide, in Nato, on the approach, and troop levels needed, to take our mission forward."
President Obama is expected to make a decision on US troop levels and strategy in the next few days. Rasmussen pre-empted the president by predicting the alliance would take a different approach, requiring many more soldiers, rather than past focus on counter-terrorism.
The new approach would increase numbers from NATO states to supplement the U.S. presence in bolstering the Afghan government and protecting the populace.
Other are expected to come from the International Security Assistance Force including South Korea and Mongolia.
One of the most difficult parts of this plan is that the re-elected Karzai government is implicated in widespread corruption.
According to a survey from Oxfam found one in five Afghans had been tortured and one in 10 imprisoned at least once since the 1979 Soviet invasion. As to the causes of the conflict 70% of Afghans named poverty and unemployment.
Written by Seamus Esparza
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