by Vera Ragone
Admiral Di Paola, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee joined via VTC the NATO Afghan Student forum yesterday.
He pointed out the main commitments of a renewed strategy toward Afghanistan and the region after the tough and difficult electoral process. Security, good governance and development are the pillars, the link to regional, provincial and district levels is the way to follow. Javid Ahmad, one of the student participants delivers some comments on the Di Paola speech.
Javid, Admiral Di Paola explained in his speech the main issues of the new strategy approach towards Afghanistan and the region. You asked him some questions concerning the strategy and its implementation. How do you value his reply?
– I think that his reply was pretty straightforward and I liked it. We have to consider that Afghanistan does not have a proper strategy so far. Now there is a strategy that you can actually undertake and follow step by step. Improving civilian efforts and encircling Pakistan are also positive aspects of the new strategy. However, what I wanted to know is what initiative after the strategy came into play to protect the people and gain local support. More practically, how they want to connect with the local leaders, who serves as a bridge between the government and the local people, since Afghanistan has a tribal structure.
Could you explain to us how you perceive the situation in Afghanistan?
– Taliban is enlarging. If you go outside Kabul, you see a totally different Afghanistan and your security is at risk. However, a large part of insurgents join their troops just because they have to feed their family.
How do you believe it would be possible to gain local support?
– I believe the first step to undertake would be to go after insurgency rather than insurgents. People who are joining Taliban forces are not in most of the cases Taliban, too. They join them because they need to feed their family.
According to that, what do you think about the German air attack near Kundus in September? A lot of civilians lost their lives?
– Civilian casualty is one of the prime reasons of increasing insurgents. When you bomb a village to strike down on two or three suspected militants, you see a massive resentment. That is why Taliban movement is turning out in a local people movement.
Small talks among cultures
by Vera Ragone
During the student presentation of national views from Europe on the NATO mission in Afghanistan, a small debate coming from the past was revived.
The two Danish panelists, Lena Brogaard and Martin Hauge Pedersen, were asked from the public why it was necessary in Denmark to publish the cartoons on the Prophet in 2005.
Martin Hauge states that at the time, the cartoons only led to misunderstandings based on differences between cultures:
“Nobody was expecting that the cartoons affair would echo so widely” he said.
“It was not a necessity” – replies Lena – “But Freedom of speech is fundamental in Denmark”.
