ANALYSIS-NATO treads cautiously into Afghan quagmire
Fri 27 Jan 2006
By Mark John
BRUSSELS, Jan 27 (Reuters) - NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer will tell an international meeting on Afghanistan next week that the military alliance is willing to do more to help Afghans find an elusive peace.
But while European NATO nations back that goal, they are equally determined not to see the alliance roped into U.S. counter-terror activities whose tactics they often reject, nor offer Washington a premature exit from the war it began.
"Europe's leaders recognise that success in Afghanistan is crucial for NATO," said Jean-Yves Haine, research fellow at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.
"But there is a view that NATO is being used as the cleaning lady for operations that went on before," he added. The United States did not involve the alliance in 2001 when it launched the invasion to oust Afghanistan's militant Islamic Taliban rulers.
Still smarting from that snub, NATO entered the picture in 2003 by taking over the ISAF international peace force, raising its presence to 9,000 troops across Kabul, the north and west.
Its decision last month to move into the Taliban-infested south around mid-2006 with a further 6,000 troops is the most ambitious yet, launching it on what could prove to be the most treacherous ground mission in the alliance's history.
While the move allows the U.S. army, stretched by the Iraq war, to consider some troop cuts, it has also highlighted how transatlantic solidarity can only be stretched so far.
NO RUSH TO ARMS
Rejecting U.S. calls to take on tougher counter-terrorism tasks, NATO nations insisted the job of hunting and killing insurgents would remain the preserve of the 19,000-strong Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) force led by the United States.
Proposed new rules for ISAF will allow its soldiers to shoot first against any threat to their security, but their core tasks will remain the patrols and support of Afghan security forces -- albeit in a more dangerous environment.
"The way we describe it is: 'We are not going out hunting the bad guys'," said one NATO diplomat who requested anonymity.
Yet even with that proviso, European nations have not exactly leapt forward to commit troops to the south.
Britain pledged 3,300 troops on Thursday to join an existing Canadian commitment of 2,200. But the Netherlands, which some hope will provide a key third component of 1,200 troops, is hesitating amid deep public concern over the mission's purpose.
A Jan. 12 survey by pollster Maurice de Hond showed just 43 percent in favour and 50 percent against. The main reservations were rooted in a feeling the Dutch were being duped into a combat role being sold as peacekeeping, and that the real aim was to help the United States out of a tight spot.
Most analysts still expect the Dutch parliament to finally approve the mission, possibly after a debate set for Feb. 2.
But Dutch misgivings, heightened by allegations late last year of secret CIA prisons and the scandal over U.S. abuse of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib jail, are shared across Europe and show wide unease with the U.S. "war on terrorism".
"We keep hearing that the (OEF) military operations there are, let's say, counterproductive," said Winfried Nachtwei, a security spokesman for Germany's opposition Greens.
U.S. forces have been accused of aggressive search tactics and their image hit by by reports of detainee abuse, including some deaths, at U.S. military detention centres in Afghanistan. ISAF's image meanwhile is that of a pure peacekeeping force.
IRAQ EFFECT
European hesitation to commit more fully also stems from the fact that many see the growing violence in Afghanistan as a knock-on effect from the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
"It is...the result of a major error of judgement -- to open a second front in Iraq without having closed the first front," said Lorenzo Forcieri, on the defence committee of the Italian parliament's upper house, stressing Italy's backing for ISAF.
Despite U.S. assurances that it is in Afghanistan for the long haul, suspicions persist at NATO headquarters over its motives for pushing the alliance to do more in the country.
France, a major ISAF contributor, has stipulated that its participation should not be seen by Washington as a cue for a hefty cut in the U.S. presence. So far, the Pentagon has ordered a reduction of 2,500 troops this spring.
Amid such doubts, the expansion of ISAF will not only test European military effectiveness but also the political will in its capitals to sustain the first major NATO mission launched outside its traditional Euro-Atlantic borders.
For IISS's Haine, the fact that most European governments do not portray Afghanistan as a matter of national interest makes it unlikely they will ever be play the lead security role there.
"The mission is regarded optional, meaning the decision to participate is based on circumstances -- and the circumstances are not good."
(Additional reporting by Emma Thomasson in Amsterdam; Peter Graff in London; Robert Birsel in Kabul; Antonella Cinelli in Rome; James Mackenzie in Berlin)
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.