Monday, November 09, 2009 BERLIN: U.S. President Barack Obama's national security adviser, James Jones, has said there is no guarantee that sending extra troops to Afghanistan would solve NATO's problems, and that they could just be "swallowed up".In an interview published on Saturday, the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel asked Jones whether he agreed with General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, that an increase of about 40,000 troops was needed."Generals always ask for more troops," Jones said."I believe we will not solve the problem with troops alone. The minimum number is important, of course. But there is no maximum number, however."You can keep on putting troops in, and you could have 200,000 troops there and Afghanistan will swallow them up as it has done in the past," he said, according to comments published by the magazine's website in English and German.After weeks of internal deliberations, Obama's advisers are believed to be moving towards a hybrid strategy that would combine greater protection for population centres with more drone and special operations strikes against the Taliban.The leading options under consideration would add at least 10,000 to 15,000 U.S. troops, but an announcement is expected to be weeks away.Jones was asked how much longer U.S. forces would remain in Afghanistan, an area of foreign policy that has come under increased scrutiny since the revelation that the Afghan presidential vote in August was heavily tainted by fraud."I don't know how long," he said. "But I know our president and other heads of government are pressing for everything to be done to ensure the Afghans assume responsibility."As of late October, Washington had 67,000 troops in Afghanistan. Other nations, mainly NATO allies of the U.S., have some 42,000 troops in the country.Jones said terrorist networks were continuing to develop in neighbouring Pakistan."The danger from there is growing," he said.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
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