ninme

Telegraph - Where are our allies in Afghanistan?

But while, in strictly military terms, British forces and their allies are prevailing in their war to subjugate the Taliban, they are not enjoying the same degree of success in the other, and arguably more important, aspect of their mission — assisting the Afghan people in the reconstruction of their country.

The main reason for this lack of progress is the continuing failure of many Nato states to provide sufficient numbers of combat troops.

As Robert Gates, the American Defence Secretary, remarked recently, the alliance has more than two million soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen at its disposal, but only a fraction of that number is available to participate in the most important mission in Nato’s history because of the national caveats that the governments of many member states have imposed on their forces deploying to areas where they might be in danger of suffering casualties.

Mark Steyn in The Corner the other day:

John, that story on the Nato mission in Afghanistan is very dispiriting. This, after all, is supposed to be “the good war,” not like illegal blood-for-oil Iraq. Yet countries that steered clear of Bush’s Mesopotamian adventure have no stomach even for a mission with impeccable multilateral bonafides. The Canadians have been taking casualties at a higher rate than the U.S., U.K. or any other nation, but they’ve also been doing a tough job very well of which their countrymen should be proud. But they’re not, not really. Huge numbers of the Canadian public don’t support the mission, don’t think it’s worth it, and want it ended. And so do the Brits and Europeans and most other members of the Nato “alliance.”

That’s how it would go here, too. When Democrats complain that Iraq is a distraction from the real war in Afghanistan, it’s worth remembering that’s just a shell game. If America pulled out of Mesopotamia and devoted its attentions to the Hindu Kush, Afghanistan would become the new Democrat-media quagmire in nothing flat.

What ever happened to VDH’s clarion call to yank our troops (the ones, as Steyn also enjoys pointing out, allows them to afford all the universal health coverage and free daycare ages 0 - 28 and 54 - ∞, that liberals here are always making us feel so guilty about not having ourselves) out of all these countries that are acting like this. I liked that idea. We’re the idiot bullet catchers for the entire globe now, and they’ve all gotten so used to the idea that maybe we should just remove our bullet-catching selves from in front of their generous entitlements and non-militarized militaries.