"...Spanish and NATO troops likely will have to remain in Afghanistan for at least another eight years to guarantee stability and peace."
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=1023955&C=europe Posted 08/15/05 14:52 Spain�s Bono Predicts Long Stay in Afghanistan By MARTIN AG�ERA, MUNICH Spanish Defense Minister Jos� Bono said Spanish and NATO troops likely will have to remain in Afghanistan for at least another eight years to guarantee stability and peace. During an Aug. 1 trip to Qala-i-Naw and Herat, in the northwestern region of Afghanistan, Bono visited Spanish troops serving in so-called Provincial Reconstruction Teams. Spain has 126 soldiers in Qala-i-Naw and approximately 500 in Herat, a base shared with an Italian military contingent. The minister was accompanied by a large Spanish delegation that included Gen. Jos� Antonio Garcia Gonz�lez, chief of the Army; Gen. Francisco Jos� Garcia de la Vega, Air Force chief; defense policy Secretary-General Francisco Torrente; and Pedro Pitarch, director-general for defense policy. Bono told reporters during his visit that his estimates on the duration of the military operations in Afghanistan were consistent with the posture of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Atlantic Council, a Ministry of Defense (MoD) statement said. But a domestic debate was fueled prior to and during the visit in Afghanistan. During his stay with the soldiers, Bono assured the troops he would do his utmost to raise their salaries. The salaries of Spanish noncommissioned officers, compared with their civilian counterparts, have sparked numerous debates in Madrid. A senior MoD official said the minister�s politcal promise to soldiers �could become a hot issue later this year� after the parliamentary summer recess. According to Spanish media reports, Prime Minister Jos� Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said he wants to spend 400 million euros ($494.9 million) more to increase military paychecks. The current defense budget is nearly 7 billion euros. However, the Ministry of Economics said sufficient funds may not be available to realize the promise, said the MoD official. �Now, it seems, the government may want to start with modest increases next year and work on it for the following three years,� said the official. The Strategic Studies Group in Madrid, a nonprofit conservative think tank, criticized Zapatero�s and Bono�s plans as insufficient, in a report posted on the group�s Web site Aug. 8, but noted better salaries are badly needed to improve morale. Three years ago, Spain embarked on an all-volunteer force, and recruitment has been difficult since then. The military�s goal of 85,000 soldiers is short by more than 10,000, Spanish defense officials said. ⢠E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> <font face=arial size=-1><a href="http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12hsruafo/M=362329.6886306.7839369.3040540/D=groups/S=1705323667:TM/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1124157791/A=2894321/R=0/SIG=11dvsfulr/*http://youthnoise.com/page.php?page_id=1992 ">Fair play? Video games influencing politics. Click and talk back!</a>.</font> --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
