Europe's Reinforcements to Afghanistan

 The Washington Post notes that the NATO-promised reinforcements are not coming in the numbers that its Secretary General had suggested he had as promises from European nations. 

On Tuesday, Germany said it would send 500 reinforcements to Afghanistan, disappointing U.S. officials, who had been pressing Berlin for at least three times that number. German officials, facing stiff domestic opposition to the war, said they would instead double their development aid to Afghanistan and begin withdrawing soldiers in 2011.

"We have nothing to be ashamed of," Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters in Berlin. "It was not the case that the Americans asked us what we wanted to do, but rather we determined ourselves what we intend to do." 

Local politics rule. American planners were hoping for 2000 additional German forces - but only 500 troops will actually be deployed for a long term, because that tops the limit that the German government mandated. Another 350 reservists will be available for limited deployments, on a case-by-case basis. And I understand this. Germany's federal budget is tight, as are the budgets in other European nations. It's an unpopular war, and none of the European nations are increasing their defense budgets - as the United States does every year. I'm thinking this is going to be the same pattern for France, Britain, and the other nations. 

Comments

[Sven Ortmann]

The German political concerns in regard to ISAF are not about money or the budget.

[J.]

I did note that it is an unpopular war in Europe... just saying that in addition to being unpopular, none of the European nations are really making any effort to develop their defense for an extended expeditionary mission of occupation and nation-building. Between those two reasons, I think that's the basis for my doubts that Europe would ever commit to the 5000-7000 troops that the NATO SecGen said were on the way.

[Ray]

Britain would really like to develop it's defence- but we don't have the money to take care of other committments- including home defence.

However, I think that to say that Britain will leave before the Americans is premature. I'd guess that there'll be some consultation before that- there are too many joint operations in place... Just a two cents based upon past comments from Gordon Brown.