Word: uruzgan
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...negotiations with his coalition partners in the Hague, Balkenende's efforts failed and with that came the collapse of his coalition government. New elections are expected within three months, and the Netherlands will now pull its contingent out of Afghanistan by December, leaving a vacuum in the southern Uruzgan province...
...Dutch represent just 2.3% of the 86,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, but they have the eighth largest national contingent in the country and one of the highest contributions as a proportion of both their population and overall national army. While Uruzgan province does not face a security threat as severe as the threats in Helmand and Kandahar, it is still volatile: 21 Dutch soldiers have been killed since the mission was first deployed in 2006. The deployment was initially scheduled to end in 2008 but was extended by two years because no other NATO member state offered a replacement...
...guest list did not extend, however, to Majeed Khan, a tribal leader in the rugged Uruzgan region of southern Afghanistan. That's a shame. Khan would have told his hosts some home truths. He would prefer to see more of NATO, if he could, because in recent months his region has been invaded by Taliban insurgents. "We cannot stop them from coming into our areas [because] there are no soldiers to stop them," said Khan earlier this month. "The soldiers [from NATO] come into the area, but then they leave and the Taliban come back. We don't encourage...
...progress. NATO forces are involved in peacekeeping in the Balkans, and its political leaders are concerned with extending its membership (in the teeth of Russian opposition) to post-Soviet states such as Georgia and Ukraine. But at a time of increasing Taliban activity in southern Afghan provinces such as Uruzgan, and a growing fatigue on the part of those nations that have troops in the area (and which are suffering a higher proportion of casualties as a result), it is the war in Afghanistan that puts NATO's challenges most sharply into perspective...
...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 a world away...