Posted on 02/11/2006 4:44:41 PM PST by Cannoneer No. 4
The fragile North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has steeled itself to face its fate. It has volunteered to take over responsibility from U.S. Central Command the task of pacifying the Taliban’s south Afghanistan stronghold of Kandahar and its surrounding provinces. There is no doubt that some, perhaps many, European and Canadian soldiers will die in combat there in the months and years ahead. This warning comes from an anonymous source on the ground in Afghanistan (from the Financial Times):
"When Nato troops arrive [in the south] they will be facing much worse conditions than this time last year," said a western security source in Afghanistan. "Nato forces have very different operating styles from the US troops and this is something that the Taliban will be waiting to take advantage of."
The arrival of European and Canadian soldiers into smoldering Kandahar and its environs will set up a perfect opportunity for Islamists everywhere, not just the Taliban, to bruise and embarrass the thought-to-be weak European and Canadian troops. The Islamists will plan to play the leftist European and Canadian media like a merry fiddle, shock and demoralize their publics back home, and make their political classes squirm and then break. The Islamists’ goal will be to break whatever remains of Western unity once and for all and thus isolate the United States from any hope of support from the remains of the West.
The Islamic beneficiaries of such an outcome would range far beyond the Taliban in Kandahar. Breaking the will of European and Canadian politicians and citizens to confront problems in the Islamic world would boost the fortunes of Mr. Bashar Al-Assad, the Iranian mullahs, the Hamas gang in Palestine, Sunni diehards in Iraq, and the list goes on. This is why Kandahar may become the latest magnet for Islamist fighters, and the newest flashpoint between the West and Islam.
Some of the best of NATO soldiery, the British, the Dutch, and the Canadians, will lead the new campaign in south Afghanistan. An Islamic victory over these troops will therefore be even more crushing to the future relevancy of NATO. NATO may be coming to pacify south Afghanistan. But if the Islamists succeed in running up the body count, demoralizing Europe and Canada, and forcing CENTCOM to retake the area, it will be the Islamists that will have pacified NATO, turning it into nothing more than a European jobs program.
The Europeans and Canadians know all of these consequences and they have signed up for the duty anyway, when they could just as well have left Kandahar with the Americans. This decision has been in the works for over a year. All have known the stakes and have pushed ahead. The Dutch parliament in particular had a long, open, but contentious debate on the matter. In the end, Dutch parliamentarians from all sides of the political spectrum approved the deployment of 1400 soldiers to the upcoming British-led operation in the south.
The current agitation over the “Cartoon Wars” is the most recent and glaring example of Europe trying to steady itself in the face of Islamic jabs. But the Dutch, the British, and the Canadians made their decisions about going to Kandahar before the Cartoon War erupted. In this sense, perhaps the Europeans and Canadians have known for some time that they needed take a stand. In preparation for this test, NATO has toughed its rules of engagement in Afghanistan.
Kandahar may not end up as the Battle of Stalingrad, but for Islamists that wish to isolate the U.S. from the West, one can see why they would wish to make it so, at least as a metaphor. What is even more interesting is that Europe and Canada have signed up for this test of wills too, knowing in advance how costly their retreat would be.
It's beginning to look like each PRT in hostile territory is going to have most of a brigade in support.
Balkh, Samangan, Jawzjan and Sar-i-Pul provinces
Don't know how accurate this is. I thought the MES PRT was British.
From what I hear it gets pretty brutal in Chagcharan.
42 Commando has had a number of jobs over the years.
It is part of 3 Commando Brigade (40, 42 and 45 Commando with arti by 29th Field Regt. Royal Artillary).
All 3 commando units participated in the assault on Port Stanley in the Falklands.
42 Commando was the embarked commando aboard HMS Ocean as part of the task force built around HMS Illustrious that fostered some clearer thinking on the par of the RUF when it deployed to Sierra Leone.
It was also part of the invasion of Iraq and has been previously deployed to Afghanistan.
I guess they care enough to send the very best.
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