NATO Commander: New Europe Threat Justifies Afghan War

NATO Commander: New Europe Threat Justifies Afghan War
Nine Years In, NATO Finally Settles on a Reason for War
by Jason Ditz, October 08, 2010
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US Admiral James G. Stavridis, the current head of EUCOM who also holds the 
needlessly pompous title of NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander for Europe discussed 
the largely nebulous terror threat against Europe, insisting it justifies the 
ongoing war in Afghanistan.
By Stavridis’ reasoning the war in Afghanistan is because of a “threat stream” 
including 9/11 that is continuing from the reason this day, insisting it was 
prima facie evidence that the war had some purpose. The US State Department 
issued a travel warning for the entire continent of Europe this week, citing the 
threat.
Yet in referencing 9/11 Stavridis underscored the flaw in his own reasoning, as 
nine years of NATO occupation of Afghanistan apparently hasn’t stopped the 
“threat stream” yet, and if that is what the war is focused on, it clearly isn’t 
doing a very good job.
Perhaps more troubling however is that a top NATO official is just now looking 
for a justification for the war over nine years after it began. This is 
particularly problematic when the war has been as destructive and destabilizing 
as this one has, and as NATO officials have been insisting for months before 
this “threat” arose that the war must continue virtually ad infinitum. The only 
conclusion then would be that the war could’ve continued forever without a 
justification, and that having come up with something of an excuse was simply a 
happy coincidence.