NATO split in Afghanistan

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Canadian Senate Report: Afghanistan - (full text)
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by Vanessa Mock

20-02-2007

Cracks are emerging within NATO in Afghanistan, after Canada last week criticised some allies for not pulling their weight. A bruising report by the Canadian Senate said all the fighting was being left to just a handful of countries while others focussed exclusively on reconstruction. The report also urgently calls for more troops in the south of the country, a demand that in the past days has been repeated by President Bush. But so far that call has not been heeded, despite predictions that the Taliban is preparing for a major spring offensive against NATO troops.

These are anxious days for NATO troops. Reports are streaming out of Afghanistan that the Taliban is growing fast and is preparing a violent assault on foreign troops in the Spring.

Some 37,000 NATO troops are currently posted in the country, but many are engaged in reconstruction work in the North, far removed from the heavy fighting in the South.

Winter lull
Military operations have so far been largely down to the British, Canadian, Dutch and US troops. And although the situation has been relatively calm during the past few months, the fear is that it could get out of hand once Taliban fighters emerge after the winter lull. Jorrit Kamminga is head of policy research at the Senlis Council, a think-tank on Afghanistan. He predicts fierce spring attacks:

"We think this year it will be worse than ever. That's based on our field research, we've been in the field for the past four weeks. I've spoken to many Afghans and for them the main reasons to support and also join the Taliban are very simple: it's lack of income opportunities, lack of jobs, poverty and we've still seen no improvement in the South."

"More and more people are seeing Taliban are a legitimate employer and not so much as a religious organisation that they shouldn't join."
Resurgence
So just how can NATO quell the resurgence of the Taliban? That's the question that's been dividing NATO partners ever since the start of the Afghan mission. But it's now driving an ever bigger wedge within the Alliance with some partners saying that rebuilding the country cannot happen without first wiping out the Taliban militarily.

But time is running out, says Joseph Day, a Canadian Senator:

"The longer the military operation goes on, the more difficult it's going to be to get involved in what we thought we would be doing quickly, which is reconstruction. The longer that goes on, the more likely it is that we're going to be looked at as invaders as opposed to helpers. We will be the problem, as opposed to the solution."

But other NATO partners, such as Germany, say the whole approach of the mission has been wrong from the start. Hans Reidel is a German parliamentarian and a member from the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. He defends his country's insistence of allowing its troops to do only reconstruction work in the North: "If we'd had the same approach in the South as in the North there would now be fewer problems with the population because they would see that apart from just military action things are also being done for the population.""To put it crudely: I cannot tell someone 'You are my friend but first I'll throw a bomb on your head.. Or first I'll destroy your main source of income without giving you a replacement." German resistance
Most of the German Bundestag and over a dozen other NATO allies are resisting calls to allow their troops to fight, despite the latest call to do just that by US president George W Bush. His demand came just after the Canadian Senate published a damning report that questioned Canada's commitment in Afghanistan.

Why have 2,500 troops and billions invested when others are not pulling their weight? Senator Joseph Day is one of the authors of the report:
"We were disappointed. I think all NATO partners recognised that there was a greater resistance in the South, in the area where the Dutch are and where Canada and the English and the Americans are. And we called for extra help, it wasn't forthcoming."

"We called for more equipment and it wasn't forthcoming. If we see this as just continuing war and no reconstruction. I doubt very much that Canada would be willing to participate in that kind of activity."Threats
Canada is threatening to pull out of Afghanistan when its commitment ends in 2009. The Dutch meanwhile have also signalled they would not stay beyond Summer 2008. And no one is standing in line to replace those troops. That's a bleak, even disastrous outlook for NATO, whose entire reputation rests on the success of its Afghan mission.

For now though, there are more urgent matters: the organisation must drum up support for the immediate Taliban threat in the coming months. But the most likely scenario is that it will just have to do with the troops that are there now - which could mean a golden chance for insurgents to get the upper hand." Meanwhile, the lack of military support from NATO partners will fuel the frustration and could create ever bigger cracks within the Alliance.