NATO Lacks a Promising and Coordinated Strategy to Win in Afghanistan
The Netherlands have tried to apply an ‘ink blot’ strategy in the Uruzgan province of Afghanistan, i.e. they focused on weaning the local population from supporting the Taliban, de-escalation and gradual expansion of a zone of security within which reconstruction can take place.
One of the reasons the Netherlands seem to be gradually abandoning the strategy is that the Dutch can’t draw up a strategy in isolation. “The Netherlands can’t drive a wedge between the local population and the Taliban with 1,400 troops in Uruzgan when 20 to 30 thousand other troops are antagonising people of the same ethnic group in the surrounding provinces,” argues Nanne Zwagerman in a guest blog post on Atlantic Review: A Shared Mission in Afghanistan?
He concludes: “If the European allies in NATO do not get to determine the mission on equal footing, they should leave the US to fight it alone.”
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6 Responses to “NATO Lacks a Promising and Coordinated Strategy to Win in Afghanistan”
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A failure in Afghanistan is much worse than any failure in Iraq.Most press and pundits ignore this front on W’s GWOT.
Rudi is righ.
The administration and the press are obsessed with talking only about Iraq and Iran.
The public is poorly informed about what’s happening in Afghanistan, and, consiquently, there is no clamor pushing Congress to pressure the President.
If we mess this up, it will be very bad, indeed.
I read an article in the NYT a month or so ago that said the Army had hired a bunch of anthropologists to help them understand the local cultures better. Similar, I believe, to what the Dutch are doing.
I had the idea that thing were going better in Afghanistan because of this.
No, Rudi is wrong. A collapsed Iraq would be much worse.
In any event, I’m a little curious about this post since it is quite at odds with reality. If anything, the Dutch are pissed at Germany and others whose nations greatly limit their role. The fact is that the Netherlands, US, Canada and the UK have done the most fighting and suffered the most casualties – particularly the Dutch. Read this.
What’s your source that “the Dutch” are pissed at Germany and others?
Canadians are pissed and suffered the most casualties ASAIK, but not the Dutch.