Posted on 09/12/2006 3:13:09 PM PDT by blam
Taliban exposes cracks in Nato
Simon Tisdall
Tuesday September 12, 2006
The Guardian (UK)
Nato chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer's public plea today for up to 2,500 additional soldiers to fight alongside British, Canadian and Dutch forces in southern Afghanistan has highlighted deep internal strains in the alliance caused by unexpectedly fierce Taliban resistance in Helmand and Kandahar provinces. The Nato secretary-general's appeal followed an unsuccessful attempt to drum up more support from leading members such as France, Germany, Italy and Spain in Warsaw at the weekend. A formal force generation conference will be held today. "We are working on getting nations to do what they promised," Mr De Hoop Scheffer said. "I am calling for alliance solidarity because some nations are carrying more of the burden than others."
But promises notwithstanding, Nato might struggle to find the extra soldiers, said Lord Garden, former assistant chief of the defence staff. "They've got real problems. You have to remember how reluctant many members were to send troops south in the first place. And the agreement was for stabilisation and reconstruction, not counter-insurgency."
He added: "This is supposed to be the first stage of a two-stage operation. The plan is for Nato to take over from the Americans in the east next year. That is potentially even more problematic. So it's difficult to see who will provide the extra troops. They do seem to have been caught a bit short. They need to have a rethink about setting more modest objectives."
Countries accused of letting the side down dispute the charge. "France is already doing an awful lot in Afghanistan," a spokesman said. "We have over 1,000 troops there, including special forces attached to the [US-led] Operation Enduring Freedom. But now we are sending 2,000 soldiers to Lebanon.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
a rather unfortunate title
In the last week or so,the BBC has run several stories that strongly suggest that NATO is on the brink of defeat in Afghanistan.
Good Fkn Grief. The left wing is oblivious to us wiping out hundreds and hundreds of these scum.
Now it seems to be a case of "Wait a minute, we didn't think WE would have to contribute blood and treasure! We thought it'd, you know, go on like before, with the US protecting us from the Soviets. We really need to look at this NATO thing..."
Just today I am starting to think we should have only trade partners. If ANYONE calls for our help, we should tell them "Naw, we don't want to be the policemen of the world, and you don't want us to be, either."
The Islamofascists will then take over the planet, other than the US and Canada (we like the lumber and oil), and we will pour all our foreign aid money into Star Wars, and we'll be safe and secure while the rest of the world lives in the slavery it so obviously wishes for.
Yes, I'm in a bad mood.
We are simply CRUSHING the taliban there.
The Guardian! Always chock full of positive stories about Western efforts!
The Taliban is "coming back", "gaining strength", "making a comeback", "rearming", "still in charge", ZZZZzzzzzz
It's tediously untrue.
"Countries accused of letting the side down dispute the charge. "France is already doing an awful lot in Afghanistan," a spokesman said. "We have over 1,000 troops there"
I had no idea how overextended the French are....../sarcasam
Yup. The Brits and Canadian have been kicking butt. 720 Taliban dead in 9 days. The Taliban can't sustain those kind of losses.
How many troops do we have in Bosnia?
They should simply ask for well-organized American militia to volunteer. As was done in the Spanish-American war.
I doubt the Chinese are worried about the Islamists. They may have some Uighurs, but they aren't as infiltrated as we are, and are untroubled by scruples, so they'll clean house if they think it necessary. They're "riding the tiger", favoring the Islamists to get advantages in resource supply while we get grief as the "Great Satan."
I can't tell who's mooning who in the title.
This is a slap-in-the-face example to those Europeans who have high hopes of creating a European army. Any European country that ever hopes to be involved in world affairs will have to have its own army--and one big enough to make a difference. They cannot rely on their partners for squat.
Not just for war, but even for humanitarian missions.
Of course, the EU bureaucrats would say that only if they had complete power over all Europe, would this change. And that's an even more laughable prospect.
It's nice to see someone else catch onto the original George Dubya's wisdom.
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