NATO celebrated its 60th birthday yesterday by making a historic pledge to the War in Afghanistan. President Obama has stated his pleasure with the new contributions, and called it a “strong down payment”. He went on to say that “We’ll need more resources and a sustained effort to achieve our ultimate goals”, but he didn’t put a damper on the mood at the conclusion of the conference in France, a recently rejuvenated member of the organization after decades of little or no participation.
NATO has pledged 3,000 more personnel, several hundred military trainers for the Afghan police and army, and 70 actual training units. Also pledged was $500 million for the infrastructure of Afghanistan and another $100 million for the Afghan National Army.
President Obama stated his faith that there would be no riffs, differences, or problems amongst the alliance in how they approached the complicated situation in Afghanistan. This comes on the heels of a revamped strategy put forth by Obama last week in concert with efforts by Pakistan. Currently NATO has 32,000 troops on the ground in Afghanistan, with 38,000 US troops working alongside their European counterparts.
Not to be a downer, but I wonder if it seems like enough to contribute 3,000 training and civilian personnel. I know the economy is suffering everywhere, so I don’t find any fault with the amount of money donated. In fact, I find the entire thing a very nice gesture. But I wonder if more combat troops would be a better thing. Then, realizing that America only has 6,000 more troops than NATO in Afghanistan (a war that has been America’s through and through), maybe America needs to take the lead and send even more troops to the country so that NATO countries will be inclined to do the same.
