Ally warns NATO Losing in Afghanistan

Australia’s new defense minister warned U.S. and NATO allies over the weekend that they risk losing the war in Afghanistan without a sharp shift in military and reconstruction efforts there, according to his office.

Fitzgibbon’s comments echo those of a leading candidate for the coordinator’s job, British diplomat Paddy Ashdown. Ashdown, the former U.N. high representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina, told a British newspaper in October that the allies were at risk of losing Afghanistan.

While the U.S. military feels it maintains a battlefield advantage over the Taliban, the senior military official told CNN that there are far too many bombings and far too many IEDs. He said the Taliban has become more diverse, with religious ideologues joined by local fighters hired for pay, warlords, drug bosses and those simply fighting over local disputes.

Ally warns NATO on Afghanistan