BRATISLAVA, Slovakia, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- NATO top diplomats warned the allies on Thursday that failure in Afghanistan would lead to instability spreading through the region into neighboring nations including the nuclear-armed Pakistan, with inevitable "consequences" for Europe.
"Leaving Afghanistan behind would once again turn the country into a training ground for Al-Qaida," NATO Secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said as allied defense ministers gathered in the Slovak capital for two days of talks focused on the Afghan conflict.
"The pressure on nuclear-armed Pakistan would be tremendous, instability would spread throughout Central Asia, it would only be a matter of time before we, here in Europe, would face the consequences," Fogh Rasmussen told a conference ahead of the ministers' talks.
Fogh Rasmussen was answering growing doubts about NATO mission in Afghanistan following months of mounting casualties among allied troops, widespread insurgency activity and presidential elections marred by fraud allegations which have called into question eight years of war and rebuilding efforts.
The violence has already spread to Pakistan where the army this week launched a major offensive against Taliban positions in the border region of South Waziristan in response to a spate of terrorist attacks.
In response to the worsening situation, NATO's top commander in Afghanistan, U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal has proposed boosting allied troop levels by at least 40,000, as well as switching tactics to provide more security for Afghan civilians and undermine support for the insurgents. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is scheduled to brief his NATO counterparts on the Obama administration's latest thinking on McChrystal's proposals.
Influential voices in Washington, led by Vice President Joe Biden, are wary about throwing large numbers of extra troops into the conflict and would prefer to keep force levels more-or-less as they are while focusing the mission more on targeting Al-Qaida hideouts in the Afghan-Pakistan border regions.
Despite mounting criticism for the delays in reaching a decision two months since McChrystal submitted his plan, U.S. officials say no conclusions are likely until after a run-off second round in the election is held on Nov. 7 between President Hamid Karzai and his nearest rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.
U.S. officials believe it would be unwise to commit extra troops when doubts persist about the legitimacy of the Afghan government they are supposed to be supporting. They are hoping the second round will clear up the uncertainly caused by the fraud-marred vote in August.
However, the Pentagon is concerned about delaying the decision for too long given the situation on the ground. The lack of decision also makes it harder for Gates to lobby the other 27 allies to provide extra troops for the Afghan mission.
U.S. troops currently make up almost half of NATO's 67,700 International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, with some 32,000 soldiers. In addition, there are about 36,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan serving outside the NATO command.
Although Britain -- the second largest contributor -- recently announced it would add 500 to the 9,000 soldiers it has in Afghanistan, other allied nations have shown little enthusiasm for sending more troops to a war which is increasingly unpopular with public opinion in several NATO countries.
Underscoring the doubts about the mission, a former ISAF commander has blasted NATO's handling of the mission. "Afghanistan has revealed that NATO has reached the stage where it is a corpse, decomposing," said Gen. Rick Hillier, who retired last year as Canada's top general.
In extracts from an autobiography due to be released next week, Hillier says: "It was crystal clear from the start that there was no strategy for the mission in Afghanistan."
Fogh Rasmussen is calling on the allies to provide more units who can train, mentor and partner the Afghan army, telling governments that stronger local security forces are the key for an eventual drawdown of NATO's mission.
"We have to do more today, if we want to be able to do less tomorrow," Fogh Rasmussen said. The Afghan army is currently 94,000 strong with a target of reaching 134,000 by this time next year.
Local forces already take the lead in over 60 percent of joint missions with allied forces, but Fogh Rasmussen said they should be given even greater responsibility for the country's security.
The United States, Britain and other nations most heavily engaged in the fight against the Taliban are hoping for a commitment from their NATO allies on greater flexibility and burden sharing -- giving commanders on the ground more leeway to deploy troops to the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan.
Nations such as Germany, Spain and Italy have been criticized for placing restrictions on where their troops can operate, preventing them from moving to hotspots in the South and east of the country.
