Afghanistan & NATO

[Whisky58]

NATO's prime function is as a mutual defense organisation - you attack me & you attack my friends as well.

It's a sad state of affairs when the US, the UK & Canada have to go "cap in hand" to the other member states to request more support for their efforts against the Taliban.

The only country to respond positively so far is Poland who has pledged a further 1000 troops.  Poland is an ex-Warsaw Pact member & hopefully the irony of this won't be lost by Germany, Spain and Italy as they dither impotently and disgracefully.

Regards,

[takeda]

Well Spain has now troops in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Congo and  Lebanon and minor deployments in Aceh, Darfur and Ethiopia. We are a poor pissant country that can't really afford anymore.

[babek-]

Maybe it would be sufficient to force the so called ally Pakistan to shut down all Taliban recruiting stations and religious schools in Northwest Pakistan in order to stop the Taliban getting stronger in Afghanistan day by day?

[Whisky58]

Originally posted by takeda
Well Spain has now troops in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Congo and  Lebanon and minor deployments in Aceh, Darfur and Ethiopia. We are a poor pissant country that can't really afford anymore.

I've just spent a very relaxing 2 weeks in your beautiful country.  "Poor & pissant" are not adjectives that sprang to mind judging by the number of luxury villas, yachts, BMW & Mercs I saw, not to mention daily displays overhead by F-16s.  I don't believe they're all owned by ex-pat Brits

Britain has over 5000 troops in Afghanistan, Spain about a 1000.  We don't have a GNP 5 times greater than Spain's.

After the appalling atrocities the people of Madrid suffered, I'd expect Spain to be in the vangard.

Regards.

[Excel1]

Originally posted by Whisky58
NATO's prime function is as a mutual defense organisation - you attack me & you attack my friends as well.

It's a sad state of affairs when the US, the UK & Canada have to go "cap in hand" to the other member states to request more support for their efforts against the Taliban.

The only country to respond positively so far is Poland who has pledged a further 1000 troops.  Poland is an ex-Warsaw Pact member & hopefully the irony of this won't be lost by Germany, Spain and Italy as they dither impotently and disgracefully.

Regards,

Your right, it's a sad state of affairs

The US are even saying that Afghanistan might be lost if more troops are not commited to the fight. I read that the nato brass want 2,000 more troops deployed in areas of heavy combat with the Taliban, but they are getting the cold shoulder from the nato partners, and that the Brits and Canucks have been pretty much left posted bearing the combat load. It's a pathetic situation. And what I find even more pathetic, in light of the current situation in Afghanistan, is the new zealand governments response to upping our commitment.."we haven't been asked to" is their response. The fact that we are not part of nato or that we haven't been asked to send more troops is beside the point, we shouldn't have to be asked. And despite the neutering of the nz defence forces by our socialist a-hole govt over the last 7 years I would think we could spare at least a couple of combat ready infantry companies to go along with the SAS and non combat reconstruction troops that have already been sent

[takeda]

Originally posted by Whisky58
I've just spent a very relaxing 2 weeks in your beautiful country.  "Poor & pissant" are not adjectives that sprang to mind judging by the number of luxury villas, yachts, BMW & Mercs I saw, not to mention daily displays overhead by F-16s.  I don't believe they're all owned by ex-pat Brits
.

We don't have any F-16, maybe you saw the portuguese invading . And those villas, yachts and nice cars belong either to:
a) Tax evaders and corrupt construction moguls.
b) The russian mafia.

Both unlikely to fund any military endeavours.

[Ack-Ack]

Originally posted by Whisky58
NATO's prime function is as a mutual defense organisation - you attack me & you attack my friends as well.

It's a sad state of affairs when the US, the UK & Canada have to go "cap in hand" to the other member states to request more support for their efforts against the Taliban.

The only country to respond positively so far is Poland who has pledged a further 1000 troops.  Poland is an ex-Warsaw Pact member & hopefully the irony of this won't be lost by Germany, Spain and Italy as they dither impotently and disgracefully.

Regards,

Germany has over 2000 soldiers currently in Afghanistan.


ack-ack

[Masherbrum]

Originally posted by Whisky58
After the appalling atrocities the people of Madrid suffered, I'd expect Spain to be in the vangard.

The way I understood this:  was that Al-Queda used those attacks as leverage to withdraw tropps that were withdrawn.   Mind you I'm not from Spain, but I have heard this from a few people.

[Suave]

I think that was the excuse they spewed at the time.

But get real, it's AQ, they'll murder first then come up with a reason.

[Krusher]

Thanks to the Poles for temporarily saving the reputation of NATO. Unfortunately it wont help the current situation because they are not deploying until February.  I can't help but believe that some NATO members want NATO dead so they can justify a New EU defense force. Or maybe they just prefer the Taliban to succeed, who can tell.

[gatt]

Originally posted by Whisky58
NATO's prime function is as a mutual defense organisation - you attack me & you attack my friends as well.

It's a sad state of affairs when the US, the UK & Canada have to go "cap in hand" to the other member states to request more support for their efforts against the Taliban.

The only country to respond positively so far is Poland who has pledged a further 1000 troops.  Poland is an ex-Warsaw Pact member & hopefully the irony of this won't be lost by Germany, Spain and Italy as they dither impotently and disgracefully.

Regards,

We have about 7.500 troops involved in 28 peace keeping missions in 19 different countries. About 2.300 of them are in Kossovo, 1.900 in Afghanistan, 1.700 in Iraq and 900 in Bosnia. We have only a para division and a few other regiments/battalions able to do such missions.
Now, our new prime minister leads a leftist coalition. I'd call it a huge support, so far.

[takeda]

85% to 90% of Spaniards were against involvement the Iraq war, and Zapatero had promised to bring back the troops if he was elected.
He was elected and he brought back the troops, just as he had promised. He subsequently increased the number deployed to Afghanistan, which was approved by all political parties and it's generally supported by everyone.

Of course, if the attacks had not happened, probably Zapatero would not have been elected, but the Popular Party ridiculous lies and deceptions regarding the attacks were their own doing. To this day they keep pushing conspiracy theories about the attacks being a conspiracy between elements of the police, the socialist party, spanish, french and moroccan secret services and ETA all disguised as Al-Q just to make them look bad. But they will also say that Al-Q made us leave Iraq... they are not that big on consistence.

[Seagoon]

Hi Babek,

Originally posted by babek-
Maybe it would be sufficient to force the so called ally Pakistan to shut down all Taliban recruiting stations and religious schools in Northwest Pakistan in order to stop the Taliban getting stronger in Afghanistan day by day?

Nah, that would be common sense. That would have been like bombing Haiphong Harbor and the Marshalling areas, instead of trying to track down and take out individual units after they had been unpacked and deployed or were being carried down the Ho Chi Minh Trail in the middle of the night. So instead we are going to hope that a strategy that failed miserably in Southeast Asia will somehow work in Vietnam.  

Wouldn't WW2 have been so much more fun if we'd decided that we were only going to attack Axis units that were engaged in aggressively attacking us? My only question is if we'd still be at war or if we would have surrendered by now? "Had to break off the attack after the 109s crossed the border into Germany and landed, on eggress we noticed several flights of German biplanes but they were unarmed trainers, so we ignored them. "

: old rolleyes :

[Bodhi]

4- Members should post in a way that is respectful of other users and HTC. Flaming or abusing users is not tolerated.

[FUNKED1]

Originally posted by Whisky58
It's a sad state of affairs when the US, the UK & Canada have to go "cap in hand" to the other member states to request more support for their efforts against the Taliban.

What's sadder is that the request is only neccesary because US forces and logistics were diverted to the wild goose chase on the Euphrates.