madam president the plan of action on afghanistan and pakistan adopted last october is in itself a good document
its aim is to create the conditions for returning responsibility from the international community including the eu to the afghan state with the former in a support role
the same is envisaged by the us in the security sector
it is hoped that the additional thirty zero us troops will create a situation in which responsibility could be handed over to the afghan forces by twenty eleven when the us withdrawal will commence
even if both the eu and the us have similar aims namely creating the conditions for the afghan state to take responsibility for its own affairs the timeframe for achieving those aims is inevitably different
adequate security will have to be achieved by twenty eleven while state building will inevitably take longer
the question then is supposing adequate security is either not achieved by twenty eleven or deteriorates again after the us pull-out will the eu already involved in state building be ready to take over the task of providing security too
i think not and then we have a problem
