President Obama is to ask members of Nato to provide up to 4,000 more troops to help to break the deadlock in Afghanistan.
Mr Obama is poised to confirm a surge of more than 30,000 US combat troops, according to senior military sources. He will also urge the rest of Nato to provide thousands of soldiers to train new recruits to the Afghan National Army (ANA).
His appeal is set to be largely ignored, however. At present only two Nato members have offered more troops ”” Britain and Turkey ”” and no other country is expected to come up with any, according to alliance sources. Such a response would threaten the credibility of the alliance in Afghanistan and represent a considerable snub for Mr Obama, who was viewed as a welcome change after the administration of President Bush.
Graveyard of Empires. Bad choice. The current Afghan political… umm… ‘system’ is the same one they’ve had for millennia, with ballot boxes glued on top. The US thinks they can do (namely conquer, hold, and remold) what Gengis Khan, Tamerlane, the British Empire, and the Soviets (to name just a few) couldn’t? And the former aspirants didn’t have to abide by rules of engagement, either.
I don’t see how Obama can make a credible appeal for more NATO troops when he is publicly waffling on whether to send more American troops.