"Priority" was a word mentioned in almost every sentence during the Kabul visit. They stood side by side in the presidential palace, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and brand new NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and showered each other with warm words. Rasmussen assured his host that Afghanistan will be his "highest priority."

Karzai seemed pleased by these reassurances. The smiling president, who is facing an election in two weeks, nodded to almost everything Rasmussen had to say. The new NATO boss repeated the word priority and pointed out the fact that his first trip was to Kabul showed just how important the country is for NATO. Reading between the lines, it means that Afghanistan will remain the alliance's problem child for some years to come. The mission there is not only the biggest in NATO's history, it is also the most controversial.

It was a surprise visit by the former Danish prime minister. Rasmussen was barely in office a few days before flying to the country that seems to only make bad headlines these days. Two weeks ahead of the presidential election, there has been an surge in violence, and no one seems to know how things will develop following the second election since the overthrow of the Taliban in late 2001. Election organizers report that, in the southern and eastern parts of Afghanistan, so many districts are in the hands of the Taliban that anyone who dares to come out and vote on Aug. 20 will be risking their lives.

'As Long As It Takes'

Rasmussen's visit comes amid a slew of bad news. An Interior Ministry map of danger zones shows just how little say the Afghan government actually has beyond Kabul. Half of the country is shown in deep red -- this is where Taliban attacks occur on a daily basis. Of Afghanistan's 356 districts, 133 are regarded as highly dangerous, and 13 are considered to be completely in enemy hands. For those in the know, even this map seems to be verging on the optimistic. The internal analyses that hang on the walls of Western embassies paint an even more drastic picture.

However, Rasmussen and Karzai were not there to discuss details. Instead, the NATO boss had come to make more promises to Afghanistan, saying that they would fight the enemy together. And Rasmussen even answered the most heavily disputed issue in the alliance: How long will NATO continue to take part in this conflict, which Germany still refuses to call a war? "We will stay and support you for as long as it takes to finish our job," he said. It was a remark that is likely to have been greeted by long faces in many of the alliance's member states.

At a time when each day brings reports of new Taliban attacks, this job of paving the way to a "free Afghanistan" seems all but impossible. The announcement that NATO wants to train more Afghan security forces -- and to do so more quickly -- so that they can eventually take over the tasks of the ISAF troops seems like little more than a pipedream.

Talking with the Taliban

Rasmussen said that there was no alternative to "continued and strengthened military efforts." Yet he will face the same problem that his predecessor faced -- having to beg NATO member states for more troops. He will hear from US General Stanley McChrystal that the US will send several thousands more soldiers for the elections to reinforce those already there. But Washington will demand that other NATO members also send more troops.

Rasmussen would not be NATO boss if he did not possess the same kind of almost naïve optimism that his predecessor, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, did. If that weren't the case, he woulnd't be able to speak about the approaching election as if there were no doubt that it would go off without a hitch. "What we need are credible elections that will reflect the will of the people," he said, adding that the vote would be a signal that the Afghan people oppose the violence and that NATO would do what it could to ensure that this happens.

Rasmussen's host was a bit more realistic. If he is reelected, Karzai said, his first priority will be to initiate a peace process with the Taliban. In reality, though, whoever wins the election will not be able to avoid making a deal with the radical Islamists, no matter how painful that might be for the West. Still, NATO wants nothing to do with these presumably shady negotiations, Rasmussen said. Only Kabul can negotiate that kind of peace process.