World fighting 'barbarianism' says president of assembly

Published on Friday 13 November 2009 21:23

LEADERS of the Nato parliamentary assembly yesterday defended military actions in Afghanistan as a battle against "barbarianism".

Assembly president John Tanner, speaking as the 55th annual meeting got under way in Edinburgh, said "evil" has to be defeated – but focusing now on the number of new troops for the region is a "mistake".

Delegates from all 28 member states – as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan – are due to discuss "meaningful progress" in the region as part of the five-day session.

Gordon Brown wants to send reinforcements to train Afghan security forces. But the rising death toll among British servicemen has led to growing calls for withdrawal.

Tennessee congressman Mr Tanner said: "What is important is that we realise why we're doing anything in Afghanistan. That's because the Afghan-Pakistan border is the epicentre for people who want to kill us, by bombs or otherwise, and to destroy our way of life.

"This is a situation where it's the civilised world versus a type of barbarianism that is very difficult to just defeat militarily. There will have to be many other facets of this, including enablers for Afghani and Pakistani people to say 'no' to the Taleban and al-Qaeda.

"Just as the great alliances came together in World War Two to defeat evil, this is our challenge now, up against these indiscriminate killers."

Foreign Secretary David Miliband is due to address the assembly, hosted by the UK Government, when it closes on Tuesday.