Word: nato
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Bucharest, the U.S., Canada and others have called on a handful of European countries to increase their troop and equipment contributions to the Afghan war. Speaking to European leaders in Germany last month, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned that NATO "must not - cannot - become a two-tiered alliance of those who are willing to fight and those who are not." But according to commanders on the ground in Afghanistan, that two-tiered alliance is already here. While French President Nicolas Sarkozy is widely expected to announce at the summit that he is sending another 1,000 French troops...
...terrorism." And hidden in those rifts are yet other questions: about the capability of some of Europe's armed forces, and even the future of the alliance itself. Australia's Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon complained in February of a complete "lack of common objectives" among the NATO allies. "Someone needs to read the riot act to NATO," fumes retired U.S. General Anthony Zinni, the former U.S. central command chief. "They've got to live up to their alliance responsibilities." (Of the 43,250 troops currently in Afghanistan under NATO command, the U.S. has contributed some 15,000, and has another...
...have 3,500. All of the remaining alliance members have dispatched at least some troops or resources to aid in the effort. But under a system of national exceptions known as caveats, most have also stipulated that their troops not be sent to difficult areas, including the south. Within NATO, only the U.S., U.K., Canada, the Netherlands and Denmark now have significant numbers of troops in the region. Because of caveats, Germans are not allowed to fight at night and Turks can't fire except in self-defense. In the view of U.S. and NATO officials, such restrictions are badly...
...more importantly, its voters - have taken as an article of faith the idea that conflicts are best settled by dialogue and diplomacy, with war reserved as a last resort. In Europe, the past is always present. Retired British General Sir Mike Jackson, the former British army chief who commanded NATO forces in Kosovo and U.N. peacekeepers in Bosnia, notes that "it is easy to be disparaging about Germany's contribution, but one shouldn't underestimate ... the sight of German soldiers in far-flung corners evoking unpleasant memories...
...most European nations, defense spending has been falling for years. Starting in 1985, through the decade after the cold war ended, it was reduced 40% in the U.K., 15% in Germany and 7% in France. Only seven out of NATO's 26 members meet the alliance benchmark of spending 2% of their GDP on defense - compared to 3.8% in the U.S. - and in most cases, those percentages are falling. The result is sharply diminished capacity, even in those nations that are ready to field troops to fight...