Monday, September 18, 2006

NATO Still Begging For Troops

Four more NATO troops were killed in Afghanistan today, while NATO's plea for more troops have, for the most part, gone unanswered.

Poland has hinted that they will add about 1,000 men to their current deployment of 10, as long as they have some say over where they get posted. Norway has refused to allow it troops to be deployed to the south. The rest of the membership has remained very quiet so far.

This included the US, who 1,300 men represent the sixth largest commitment of troops to the NATO force.

With the Taliban starting to make noise in the west, new forces must be found. If the nations of Europe can not be cajoled into adding forces, the US will have to do it.

This decline in the stability of Afghanistan is just one of the many toxic byproducts of the failed war in Iraq. The removal of US troops, money and interest there simply assured that the daunting task of getting Afghanistan up on it's feet would be vastly more difficult that it had to be.

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3 comments:

Lynne said...

I find it interesting the China is sending 1,000 troops to Lebanon.

Anonymous said...

My understanding is that Polish forces will be placed in the North. The General in charge said on NPR that they had no say in where they would be deployed, stating those decisions are made at "higher levels".
Can you tell that Poland is the new kid on the NATO block?

Jon said...

It seems everyone wants to place their troops in the north. It makes sense, since the southern 2/3 of the country is where we need them.

and Lynne, yes, China's deployment into Lebanon is very interesting.