Gates Challenges European Military Leaders on Afghanistan
Defense Secretary Says NATO's Stability Is at Stake
http://www.wa****ngtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/10/AR2008021000759.html?hpid=topnews
MUNICH, Feb. 10 - Defense Secretary Robert Gates challenged the
European military leaders and lawmakers Sunday to revive flagging
sup****t for the international mission in Afghanistan, warning that if
members of NATO were no longer willing to shoulder the burdens of war
equally, it "would effectively destroy the alliance."
Gates's comments to the annual Munich Conference on Security Policy
were the latest attempt by the Pentagon chief to persuade NATO allies
to send more troops to Afghanistan, especially in the southern part of
the country where the fighting has been fierce and where the Taliban
controls wide swaths of territory.
Gates said too many European countries have been content to
participate only in less risky peacekeeping and training operations.
"Some allies ought not to have the luxury of opting only for stability
and civilian operations, thus forcing other allies to bear a
dispro****tionate share of the fighting and the dying," he said. He
repeated comments made in Wa****ngton last week that NATO risked
becoming a "two-tiered alliance" if certain countries, which he did
not name, continued to shy away from combat.
Such remarks have irked some NATO members, who say the Pentagon is
unfairly blaming its allies for the inability to win a lasting victory
over the Taliban and other insurgents.
Germany, in particular, has taken offense. Berlin recently agreed to
send 250 extra soldiers to Afghanistan as part of a "rapid reactionary
force," but otherwise has resisted pleas that it extend its operations
beyond its duties in the relatively peaceful northern part of the
country.
During a question and answer session after Gates' speech, Reinhard
Buetikofer, a leader of the Greens party in Germany, criticized the
defense secretary for what he called "an attempt at leader****p by
fingerpointing and scapegoating," noting that Berlin has sent the
third largest contingent of foreign troops in Afghanistan and that 26
of its soldiers have died there.
He also ****fted the blame for the mission's shortcomings back on
Wa****ngton. "Who was distracted from Afghanistan in 2003?" he asked
Gates, referring to the invasion of Iraq.
In response, Gates said he wasn't trying to single out individual
countries and praised Germany for the work it has done in northern
Afghanistan. But he didn't let Germany entirely off the hook, either.
"I wasn't pointing at Germany at all," he said. "Germany, frankly, it
seems to me has been a little overly sensitive, since Germany was
never mentioned. The fact is we've got a number of countries there.
And the countries that are not willing to go into combat know who they
are."
The German Parliament has placed restrictions on the mission of its
3,200 troops in Afghanistan, with the result that most are not used in
active combat.
Other U.S. officials have been more willing to point the finger.
In an interview published Friday by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, a Munich-
based newspaper, U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns singled
out Spain, Italy, France and Germany as NATO members that needed to
either provide more troops or loosen restrictions on their ability to
fight.
"We need those countries to take their share of the responsibility,"
he said.
France has been discussing the possibility of sending troops to
southern Afghanistan. French Defense Minister Herve Morin met with
Gates last week in Wa****ngton and later in Vilnius, Lithuania, as part
of a NATO ministers' meeting.
But in speech at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Morin
made no commitments and downplayed the idea that the war in
Afghanistan could be won on the battlefield alone.
"The solution is not just a military one," he said. "Military action
is like the effect of a wave lapping at the sand."
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