NATO allies face new Afghan troop call
Source: Reuters
(Releads with call for more troops, letter to Italy) By Mark John BRUSSELS, Feb 6 (Reuters) - NATO's top operational commander wants more troops to help crush an expected Taliban offensive in Afghanistan but is facing widespread reluctance among allies to come forward, alliance officials said on Tuesday. U.S. General Bantz Craddock will present a request for three and a half extra battalions -- the equivalent of over 2,000 troops -- at a meeting of national defence ministers in Seville on Thursday and Friday, they said. The United States and Britain have in past weeks announced they will send reinforcements of the 34,000-strong NATO force. But Craddock, who took over as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe in December, sees the need for more. "It is absolutely expected he will make recommendations and that he will buttonhole individual defence ministers," a senior U.S. official said of the talks in the Spanish city. "It is important that we do our work now with the Afghan army to root out Taliban safe havens and to strengthen the border," said the official, who requested anonymity. With more than 4,000 people killed in violence, last year was the bloodiest in Afghanistan since U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban Islamist government in 2001. After a winter lull, NATO expects the fighting to restart in earnest this spring. The Bush administration, which faces elections in 2008, sees the next 12 months as a crunch year in which it must show voters it is getting the upper hand against insurgencies in both Iraq and Afghanistan. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged allies at a NATO meeting in January to come forward with troops "ready to fight", but the response so far has been largely limited to a British announcement of an added 800 troops. NO QUICK FIX Spain, the Netherlands, France and Turkey have ruled out near-term reinforcements. Germany, while looking to send reconnaissance jets to the south, has resisted calls to deploy troops outside its base in the relatively calm north. "It's one thing to say: 'we have put this on the table -- now match it'," said one alliance source of Rice's call for allies to follow Washington's announcement in January that it was extending the tour duties of some 3,200 troops. "But it is another to work out who is going to stump anything up. Just as important now is the need for allies to stay the course," added the source, stressing there was unlikely to be a quick fix to Afghanistan's problems. NATO's four-year presence in Afghanistan has been dogged by U.S. accusations its allies are not shouldering their share of the security burden and European retorts that Washington is underestimating their overall commitment to the country. The U.S. ambassador to Italy, Ronald Spogli, and five other ambassadors stirred controversy by publishing an editorial in a national newspaper over the weekend calling for an "increase in our contribution for reconstruction and civil development". The United States' European allies point to the fact that they have made up the majority of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) since NATO took it over in 2003, and have been major donors since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. Italy's government, which has suffered infighting over the Afghan mission, criticised the direct appeal to the public, with Defence Minister Arturo Parisi calling it "irregular". But last year's push by ISAF into the more dangerous south and east came about largely thanks to major reinforcements by the United States and Britain -- which between them now make up a half of the total ISAF force strength. The Seville trip will be new Pentagon chief Robert Gates's first meeting with his NATO allies. Gates then goes on to a high-profile annual security conference in Munich where U.S. strategy on Iraq is seen dominating the agenda. (Additional reporting by Phil Stewart in Rome)
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