France’s defence minister said Wednesday said Paris had no plans to send more troops to Afghanistan, despite plans by US President Barack Obama to step up the pressure on a resurgent Taliban. “As far as France is concerned, we have made the necessary efforts and there is no question, for now, of considering extra reinforcements,” Defence Minister Herve Morin told French radio Europe 1.
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Germany is among European nations bracing for demands from the new US administration that they do more in Afghanistan, but the Germans are reluctant to send more troops and believe talks on a new strategy for stabilizing the country are the main priority. Chancellor Merkel has said that she would not accede to any request from the new US administration to send troops to southern Afghanistan, the scene of much of the heavy fighting against Taliban insurgents. “Wherever Germany commits itself, a wholeness of military and civilian assistance should be visible,” she said.
NATO isn’t meeting its obligations to send police trainers to Afghanistan, and those who are there often have “no transport, no armoured vehicles and no money,” one NATO official complained to Reuters. Experts believe that there is little chance of NATO significantly increasing troop levels. The result may lead to the fracturing of NATO.
But Michael O’Hanlon of Washington’s Brookings Institution think tank saw little hope for more than a 10 percent increase in European troop numbers, and said that would not go down well the other side of the Atlantic. “The European rationale for why it’s hard to do more will not be met with a great deal of American sympathy — and will especially fail to impress American voters, who will be disappointed that Obama’s style of leadership does not elicit more genuine burden-sharing,” he said. Bob Jackson of London’s Chatham House think tank said that in turn could lead to fresh U.S. disillusionment with NATO. “If the Germans, the Spanish, the Italians, the French aren’t going to find a cooperative strategy with the United States, what’s the point of keeping NATO? The United States will just go it alone,” he said.
Despite President Obama’s popularity in Europe and particularly among the political elites, European governments will continue to act in their own self interests. President Obama has declared Afghanistan the central front against al Qaeda, and without NATO assistance, U.S. troops will be left manning the bulk of the front, just as they did in Iraq. The vast majority of NATO countries have tired of the Afghan mission, and no amount of hope will change that.
