NATO on trial as Afghanistan spins out of control

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L13587186.htm

KABUL, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Here's an astonishing fact: the 5,700-strong multinational force keeping the peace in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, has just three helicopters.

Belgium offered more choppers and then got cold feet once it realised the cost, Greece declined to send any because it was too stretched by preparations for the 2004 Athens Olympics and Turkey is now sitting on a last-ditch request to fill the gap.

So much for NATO's plans to expand its International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) into lawless hinterlands of the country, where Taliban militia are back on the offensive and warlords are thriving on a resurgent opium drug trade.

"If the alliance does not step up to the plate, in five years we will be back here fighting again because this place will go to hell," says Lieutenant-Colonel John Tibbetts, chief planner at the 24-nation force's headquarters in Kabul.

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[Spazito]

1. The Taliban all but owns everything except Kabul....

NATO has been trying to get more troops, equipment but, so far, no go. It is going downhill very fast.

[htuttle]

2. So much for NATO bailing Bush's ass out of Iraq

This thread from LBN
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=225167

Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, arrives in Brussels tonight for talks with EU ministers, which he will combine with a meeting with the retiring Nato secretary general, Lord Robertson of Port Ellen. Diplomats say that Mr Powell is expected to "test the water" about the involvement of the transatlantic alliance in Iraq. The litany of setbacks, growing US casualties and the recent killing of 18 Italian servicemen has brought intense domestic and international pressure on the Bush administration to give the occupying force more legitimacy.

[54anickel]

3. Didn't NATO figure into Clarks plan as well? This doesn't bode well

for anyone, least of all our troops and the Iraqis.