WP : NATO Tries to Persuade Allies on Troops

NATO Tries to Persuade Allies on Troops

By PAUL AMES | Associated Press | September 13, 2006

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- NATO generals struggled Wednesday to persuade allies to provide an extra 2,000 troops urgently sought by commanders because of the ferocity of Taliban resistance to the alliance push into southern Afghanistan.

The alliance, created to defend Europe against Soviet attack, has been forced into the first major land battle in its 57-year history as Taliban insurgents defy a drive by 8,000 British-led NATO troops into the southern heartland of Afghanistan's Islamist former rulers.

NATO commanders acknowledged being surprised by the level of resistance and called a force generation conference at the alliance's military headquarters in southern Belgium to muster reinforcements and extra air cover to try to crush the Taliban before they slip back to mountain hideaways for the winter.

However, European allies, with thousands of troops already committed elsewhere in Afghanistan or in Iraq, Kosovo, Bosnia, Congo and most recently Lebanon, are wary of sending more to the battlefields of Kandahar and Helmand, where recent fighting has killed more than 30 NATO troops and hundreds of militants.

NATO's top operational commander, U.S. Gen. James L. Jones, launched the appeal for more troops last week, saying the force is about 15 percent short of full strength.

He said Taliban forces had switched tactics and were launching conventional battles against NATO's troops and their Afghan army allies in the south, rather than relying on hit and run attacks. In response, NATO has gone on the offense with campaign dubbed Operation Medusa, that began Sept. 2, to drive into Taliban strongholds.

Jones said the extra troops could help deliver a decisive blow to the Taliban in the region.

The NATO force in the south is led by Britain, which has about 4,500 troops in Afghanistan. It is backed by about 2,000 each from Canada, the Netherlands and United States and smaller contingents from Romania, Denmark and others.

Pressure has been mounting on other major allies to do more.

However, France and Italy have recently committed to taking leading roles in the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon; Germany is already playing a leading peacekeeping role in northern Afghanistan with 2,600 troops and does not want them drawn into the southern fighting; and Turkey's Chief of Staff, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, last week ruled out sending any combat troops to supplement the around 900 Turkish soldiers helping with reconstruction in Kabul.

Military analysts say the increasing international commitments on overstretched European forces mean NATO will find it hard to raise more troops.

"The signs are not particularly good for a rapid response," said Lord Timothy Garden, of London's Chatham House think tank. "This has been going on in different theaters for years and years now, really since 1999 in Kosovo, and all our militaries are getting pretty threadbare."

NATO has about 20,000 troops in Afghanistan, but most are committed to peacekeeping and reconstruction operations in Kabul and the relatively peaceful northern and western regions. NATO commanders are frustrated that some governments won't allow those troops to be moved into the southern combat zones. They have taken heart from a strong performance from Afghan army troops and have expressed confidence that the Taliban will be unable to sustain such high casualty figures for long.

Garden, a former assistant chief of Britain's defense staff, said killing more Taliban is not the way to stabilize Afghanistan.

"Saying we're doing well in the south because we've killed 200 or 250 gives me a real sinking feeling. I know it sort of echoes Vietnam, but it's also not what we're there to do," he said by telephone. "You won't win hearts and minds by doing body counts."