The West must remain steadfast in Afghanistan

The daily Berlingske Tidende voices concern over the treatment being given to the Afghan war in the German elections and the debates on military deployment in Afghanistan. Announcing a withdrawal of the international armed forces would only play into the hands of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, the paper writes: "[Those people] don't think in a time-frame of one or two years, and [count on] the Western countries eventually abandoning their mission and leaving Afghanistan. After that the country would be left in the hands of extremists. The battles of the past years would then be in vain. For that reason Western politicians must remain steadfast. We are in Afghanistan to fulfil a mission - to swiftly bring about peace and democracy in the country. And we will not leave the region before this result has been achieved. Even if it takes ten to fifteen years. Anything else would be a mockery for those who have fought hard and at times paid the highest price in order to bring peace to Afghanistan."

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