First off, I hate linking to any CNN article but it's the one with the best detail on this story but please note that in CNN's story here, the CNN folks conveniently leave the word "Islamic" out of their story title. Figures.
Defense Secretary Gates did not mince any words in comments at the NATO meetings in Europe when he said:
Gates main message was that he was speaking to the European people that islamic extremism would NOT go away. I'm sure Gates is trying to enlist the support of the European people to pressure their governments to stand up to the plate on support of efforts in Afghanistan. I don't know if that will work, but I have to give Gates credit for calling a spade a spade and not cowing to NATO leaders for him to tone down his rhetoric.
This is the hardest hitting portion of Gates' speech which literally points a finger in the direction of Germany and France:
Gates is smart enough to understand that if NATO operations fade in Afghanistan, there will be little chance of increasing efforts anywhere else in the world. He has an uphill battle but from what I have seen in the past week, he has refused to back down. Let's hope he doesn't.
Defense Secretary Gates did not mince any words in comments at the NATO meetings in Europe when he said:
"You know all too well about the attacks in Madrid and London," Gates said. "But there have also been multiple smaller attacks in Istanbul, Amsterdam, Paris, and Glasgow, among others. Numerous cells and plots have been disrupted in recent years as well -- many of them seeking large-scale death and destruction."
Gates main message was that he was speaking to the European people that islamic extremism would NOT go away. I'm sure Gates is trying to enlist the support of the European people to pressure their governments to stand up to the plate on support of efforts in Afghanistan. I don't know if that will work, but I have to give Gates credit for calling a spade a spade and not cowing to NATO leaders for him to tone down his rhetoric.
This is the hardest hitting portion of Gates' speech which literally points a finger in the direction of Germany and France:
"But we must not -- we cannot -- become a two-tiered alliance of those who are willing to fight and those who are not," he said. "Such a development, with all its implications for collective security, would effectively destroy the alliance."
"Some allies ought not to have the luxury of opting only for stability and civilian operations, thus forcing other allies to bear a disproportionate share of the fighting and the dying," he said.
Gates is smart enough to understand that if NATO operations fade in Afghanistan, there will be little chance of increasing efforts anywhere else in the world. He has an uphill battle but from what I have seen in the past week, he has refused to back down. Let's hope he doesn't.
Gates: Europe must fight extremism
MUNICH, Germany (CNN) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has urged European nations to commit more troops to help fight extremism in Afghanistan or risk the survival of the NATO alliance.
Gates has recently complained that countries like the United States, Britain, and Canada are doing the bulk of the fighting while others -- specifically Germany, France, Italy and Turkey -- are not doing enough.
Addressing the Munich Conference on Security Policy, where Afghanistan was a central topic, Gates said on Sunday he was speaking "directly to the people of Europe" with a warning that Islamic extremism is a real threat to them that will not go away.
U.S. Army Gen. John Craddock -- NATO's supreme commander -- said in an interview at the conference that NATO's ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) does not have all of the needed resources to get the job done in Afghanistan.
NATO, he said, must remove "bureaucratic hurdles" that slow progress in Afghanistan and implement "a common set of training standards" for all troops sent there.
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