The Netherlands announced that Dutch troops would leave Afghanistan from July 2010, though it remained uncertain whether other nations would send enough soldiers to replace them. “I do not have assurances that other countries will be ready to replace Netherlands troops, but I am certain that Dutch troops will leave in 2010,” Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen told journalists. “I indicated that in writing … to the NATO secretary general, who has confirmed it. The Netherlands government decided last month to prolong its Afghanistan deployment by two years to December 2010 and the parliament approved the measure late on Tuesday. Dutch troops are stationed in the southern province of Uruzgan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Some 1,600 Dutch soldiers have been stationed in Uruzgan since July 2006. The mission, which was initially set to end after two years, is set to be reduced to between 1,100 and 1,200 soldiers in that region, with 250 troops in Kabul and Kandahar.
The Canadians are wavering, too. France has promised more troops, but they will likely be restricted to a training mission. The Aussies have expressed a willingness to fill the hole in NATO lines, but they can’t stand in for both the Canadians and the Dutch. Poland is already committed in Iraq and Afghanistan, so are the British. The rest of NATO is squabbling over whether or not their constitutions allow them to fight, despite the fact that they unanimously invoked Article V of the alliance charter (collective defense) after the 9/11 attacks. The failure of NATO to competently perform its most basic function could mean the end of the alliance, says Reuters:
The 38-nation NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan is already hobbled by restrictions that mean most European nations only allow their troops to fire in self-defence and bar them from the more violent south. U.S. appeals for 3,500 more military trainers, more helicopters and ground troops have largely fallen on deaf ears. The shortage of troops means NATO, in the words of one analyst, “is left chasing the pieces round the chess board”. Some now question the validity of an alliance that won the Cold War, but is struggling against a rag-tag lightly armed militia. Failure in Afghanistan might damage NATO beyond repair.
Ultimately, we’re going to have to fill these gaps ourselves. And there’s only two ways to make that happen: pull troops out of Iraq and send them east, or vastly increase the size of the military.
