27 October 2009

Thanks for stealing my snide mockery...

Well, Jason Sigger at Armchair Generalist beat me to the punch. Yesterday, I received an e-mail in reference to a conference last Friday in Slovakia, where several NATO defense ministers endorsed General Stanley McChrystal's new counterinsurgency plan. This plan would call for up to 44,000 additional troops in Afghanistan.

The e-mail said something to the effect of "looks like full-blown COIN in Afghanistan".

Uh, not really.

Pop quiz: which NATO contingent is volunteering to extend the war past 2011? Canada and the Netherlands are withdrawing their troops. The Germans and Italians still haven't even admitted that there's a war in Afghanistan. There's a few countries that may volunteer to send more troops, but the vast majority of that 44,000 will have to come from the United States.

Not to knock the NATO participants who might send more troops, but this sounds a lot like the "good idea fairy". Certainly, pumping more troops and money into Afghanistan sounds like a great idea---as long as someone else does it.


3 comments:

Unknown said...

Well . . . yeah, but they said they’d think about sending more troops “when the time is right.” What more could you ask for than that from our staunch allies? In the meantime, they’ll be happy to hold our coat while we do the heavy lifting. In diplo-speak, this would be referred to as a “breakthrough in negotiations.”

J. said...

I crosslinked my post to Crooks and Liars (I am a new hire to their group blog) and got slammed from liberals who thought I was a knuckle-dragging caveman looking to keep fighting. They completely missed the point, that I was really saying "oh, come on, put up or shut up."

I am not impressed with how NATO does business, and if they want to leave, that pressure is going to be hard on McChrystal. Not something good partners do, so they need to either say "hey, time to go, US" or "yes, we're with you." I don't think the NATO gang did either - they waffled down the middle, helping no one.

GrEaT sAtAn'S gIrLfRiEnD said...

is it Australia?