Word: nato
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...finally out in the open: French President Nicolas Sarkozy plans to send significant troop reinforcements to the NATO mission in Afghanistan. But while his long-anticipated decision to bolster the alliance's struggling counterinsurgency mission will please the U.S., Britain and Canada, which had been urging their NATO partners to do more, Sarkozy's announcement has prompted an unexpected uproar in France. Indeed, some commentators are warning that by expanding France's exposure in a war considered just by a majority of French people, Sarkozy may be undermining public support of the mission...
...France's formal commitment of an additional 1,000 ground troops to Afghanistan will come during next week's NATO summit in Romania. Those new troops are to join France's current contingent of 1,600. But while those currently in Afghanistan patrol the relatively calm area in and around Kabul, most or all of the new units are expected to be sent to the south of Afghanistan, where the reformed Taliban and their allies have strengthened. Indeed, deaths among Canadian combat personnel in the area have been so high that Ottawa had threatened to pull its military from Afghanistan...
...Especially since those claims are now being aired by Sarkozy's fellow conservatives - who have forced a parliamentary hearing on Sarkozy's planned troop deployment next week. In addition to concerns that those reinforcements won't tip the balance back to NATO's side - while sending Afghan forces a sign they can count on outside help indefinitely - some legislators bristle at Sarkozy's apparent responsiveness to American decrees. "This decision clearly looks to be an Atlanticist alignment on American positions, even though Washington's foreign policy is a total failure," fumed Jacques Myard, a conservative member of parliament's foreign...
...course. There will be a new Administration in Washington next year, conceivably one whose temper and tone will be such that European public opinion will swing behind the need to fund its military establishments properly (though don't count on the latter ever happening). Meanwhile, it is clear that NATO is facing a test in Afghanistan that is unlike anything it has encountered, and one that it may not survive. U.S. frustration with some of its European partners could compel Washington to establish other coalitions of the willing instead, says military analyst Michael O'Hanlon, at the Brookings Institution...
That would hardly be good for Europeans - especially those without military forces large enough to ensure their own security. One of the virtues of being part of an alliance like NATO is that it allows small countries to leverage their capabilities to form part of a coherent whole - provided they are willing to ante up their share of battle-ready troops. "NATO has its problems, of course," says Britain's General Jackson. "But believe you me, there is nothing to match it." Back in Uruzgan, tribal leader Khan would certainly agree. The question is whether Europeans looking on from half...