The head of NATO is predicting gains in Afghanistan next year, as 30,000 new U.S. troops pour into the war-torn country alongside an additional 7,000 forces that will be provided by at least 25 other countries.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen announced Friday the supply of foreign troops that will accompany the U.S. troop surge, "with more to come."
He also predicted the coming year "will see a new momentum in this mission."
"With the right resources, we can succeed," Fogh Rasmussen said at a news conference, following a meeting in Brussels of allied foreign ministers and representatives of non-NATO countries that have forces in Afghanistan.
Fogh Rasmussen said the 44 countries involved in Afghanistan remain "absolutely united" in seeing the eight-year war through to a successful outcome.
"The strongest message in the room today was solidarity," he said. "Nations are backing up their words with deeds."
U.S. Navy Adm. James Stavridis, the top NATO and U.S. commander in Europe, told The Associated Press that he believes several thousand non-U.S. troops will be in Afghanistan next year, in addition to the 7,000 cited by Fogh Rasmussen.
"What we are all underlining to potential troop contributors is that we are truly asking for emphasis in the training area," Stavridis said. "And what I'm hearing is that we'll get very good responses."
In total, the U.S. now has about 71,000 troops in Afghanistan, a number that will jump to more than 100,000 troops in the New Year. Forty-two other NATO and non-NATO nations have a total of about 38,000 troops there.
While Canada is slated to leave Afghanistan in 2011, there is no official word on whether Ottawa would boost its troop levels in the interim.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters she was encouraged by the additional levels of support that was expected to be announced by allied nations. But she acknowledged that many leaders must make sure "the political stars are in alignment," before they are able to announce new commitments for a controversial war.
Clinton was in Brussels to drum up support for U.S. President Barack Obama's revamped war strategy, which banks on external support from its allies to escalate combat, bolster civilian functions and provide more development aid.
The U.S. secretary of state also addressed the issue of Obama's intention to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2011.
"At that time, we will begin to transfer authority and responsibility to Afghan security forces removing combat forces from Afghanistan over time with the assurance that Afghanistan's future, and ours, is secure," Clinton said, according to a copy of her prepared remarks to the closed-door meeting.
"The pace, size, and scope of the drawdown will be predicated on the situation on the ground. If things are going well, a larger number of forces could be removed from more areas. If not, the size and speed of the drawdown will be adjusted accordingly."
International political expert Erika Simpson said that the surge is important because it shows that NATO can still band together in a sign of solidarity.
However, she cast doubt of the efficacy of the additional troops, given Afghanistan's war-torn history.
"The Soviets had more than 100,000 troops in Afghanistan, so we don't know how many troops are needed," said Simpson, who is an associate political science professor at the University of Western Ontario in London.
She also said that the Taliban aren't tied to a timeline, making them a difficult enemy.
Simpson noted that the insurgents pull in about $700 million every year from the country's lucrative opium trade, and many analysts suggest that they have a two-year stockpile of the drugs.
"The Taliban sees this as a long war against the west," she said, adding that 18 months is "just a tiny drop in the bucket."
However, the U.S. is trying to spread the message to Afghans that it does not want to be there for the long-term, said University of Ottawa professor Errol Mendes.
"I think what the Americans want the Afghans to realize is that this is not an American occupation," Mendes told Â鶹´«Ã½ Channel during an interview from Ottawa on Friday morning.
Instead, it is an attempt by nations involved in the Afghan theatre to "counter the insurgency," said Mendes.
The top American commander in Afghanistan, U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, was also attending the meting of NATO's main political council in Brussels.
McChrystal has said the ongoing, years-long fight against the Taliban is deteriorating and he advocated for the troop surge provided by Obama earlier this week.
At the same meeting, David Miliband, the British foreign secretary, said that prolonged instability in Afghanistan created threats for "people everywhere."
"We all know that in the 1990s, Afghanistan was the incubator of international terrorism, the incubator of choice for global jihad," he said. "The badlands of the Afghan-Pakistan border are a threat to people everywhere, whatever their religion, and that's why it's very important that we make progress."
With files from The Associated Press
