Some Allies Wary of New Troop Pledges

[cornermouse]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/03/world/03reax.html?_r=1

PARIS — As political and military leaders across the globe pondered President Obama’s announcement of his Afghan strategy, European allies offered a mixed response on Wednesday, with some of the biggest contributors to the NATO coalition withholding promises of immediate troop reinforcements...

...But the president’s entreaties drew an ambivalent response in some European nations where the war is broadly unpopular among voters who question why it is being fought and whether it can be won.

France and Germany ruled out an immediate commitment, saying they were awaiting an Afghanistan conference in London in late January. Other nations offered only limited numbers of soldiers.

Álvaro de Vasconcelos, director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies in Paris, said the war was “badly perceived in Europe, contaminated by the Iraq war, the killing of civilians, the collateral damage, all of which has contributed to a widespread opposition to the Afghan war among Europeans.”...

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Just throwing a point of view that is outside of DU and possibly a little more balanced or realistic.

[cornermouse]

1. kick

[frylock]

2. knr

[FrenchieCat]

3. It is a NATO war, and as such, will see Additional troops coming from NATO

which is why the article doesn't say that it won't happen....
only says that France and Germany will wait and then determine.

I don't approve of this war either, but then I didn't approve of it 8 years ago either....
but I do approve of the fact that there appears to be an end in sight,
and I think that many Europeans will come around, because they are thinking people.....
at the end of the day.

Bush left a bad skidmark on the world, and his pimping of 9/11 didn't help.
Bush cheapened a tragedy, and made it hard for folks to remember that what
happened on that 9/11 day was a real tragedy resulting in real dead civilians.
That will be his legacy. Obama's legacy will be that he end the open-ended "war on Terror",
as well as the Iraq War.

[cornermouse]

4. Don't count on it Frenchie.

NOVA had a story just last night about the fact that Germany is going into solar and wind energy, according to them, specifically to cut the hold that the oil producers have. They're now up to producing 30% of their own renewable energy. We produce 1% or less. They're leaders in developing the field. We're not. We need the oil. They don't.

They may continue to support for a while but we're losing our influence and in the not too distant future when we try to get them to contribute they're going to tell us to jump in the lake. The fact that they're a member of NATO doesn't mean they have to join every venture we cook up.