Washington
12 March 2008
Several U.S. Senators and a high-ranking U.S. military official say America's allies in NATO should send more troops to fight the war in Afghanistan. VOA's Kent Klein reports from Washington.
With the NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania less than a month away, U.S. officials speaking before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee assessed the alliance's performance in fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The overall situation in Afghanistan is still a reason for concern, according to Daniel Fried, the Acting Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs.
"Levels of violence are up, particularly in the south," said Daniel Fried. "The border areas with Pakistan provide a haven for terrorists. Civil-military cooperation does not work as well as it should."
But Fried does see some reasons for hope.
"It's worth recalling that six million Afghan children now go to school, one-third of them girls," he said. "That's two million girls in school, when under the Taleban there were none. Zero."
All 26 NATO member nations are taking part in the mission in Afghanistan, but some of them are not willing to send more troops into the country.