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Sam the Eagle
Joined: 02 Oct 2006
Posts: 2276
Location: 192.168.0.1
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 Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2009 9:27 am Post subject: NATO's allies not? |
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Off colour joke aside, this piece of news about what's going on in Afghanistan is interesting :
French troops were killed after Italy hushed up ‘bribes’ to Taleban
| Quote: | Western officials say that because the French knew nothing of the payments they (Italians) made a catastrophically incorrect threat assessment.
“One cannot be too doctrinaire about these things,” a senior Nato officer in Kabul said. “It might well make sense to buy off local groups and use non-violence to keep violence down. But it is madness to do so and not inform your allies.” |
Italic mine, added for clarity.
Now, and assuming this is true, beside the inevitable fallout between Italy and France, it raises questions about the nature of the beast.
NATO is mostly a US tool, used both to blanket, whitewash, internationalise US led operations (pick adjective according to your leaning). It doesn't promote co-operation between members, as seen above. What one goverment do for it's own domestic purpose can be done elsewhere for the same reasons by another. Some nations are already reluctants to send troops there, this won't help.
Now the common (Soviet) threat is no more, this sad incident is bound to happen again, maybe in Afghanistan again, maybe somewhere else. One wonders if that organisation has a real international purpose.
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Major Tom
Joined: 09 Jul 2006
Posts: 7562
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| Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2009 9:46 am Post subject: Re: NATO's allies not? |
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| Sam the Eagle wrote: |
| Quote: | | Western officials say that because the French knew nothing of the [Italian] payments they (the French) made a catastrophically incorrect threat assessment. |
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for clarification.
as a stand-alone incident, i don't see the wholesale indictment of NATO so much as the italians are dicks |
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The Highlord
Joined: 09 Jul 2006
Posts: 555
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| Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2009 10:23 pm Post subject: |
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8309464.stm
| Quote: | Italy has angrily denied a UK newspaper report that it paid Taliban fighters in Afghanistan to keep the peace.
Italy's defence [sic] minister said his country was planning to sue the Times newspaper over the claims. |
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Sam the Eagle
Joined: 02 Oct 2006
Posts: 2276
Location: 192.168.0.1
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| Posted: Fri Oct 16, 2009 5:50 am Post subject: |
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Read that one too. Looks like a bit of posturing to me, the current govt wasn't the one involved. And I do not believe one second any country would be acting like dicks on the ground, politically it's another issue.
French sources seems to acknowledge that something was fishy (french take). And other countries were named elsewhere.
It's not pointing fingers that I'm interested at, sadly more that I understand the underlying reasoning: For domestic purpose, countries' leaders are willing to pay up the other side once they themselves lost troops, as it was for Italy's case, and fighting a domestically unsupported war.
At least that begs the question of multi lateral actions' purpose.
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