NATO Steps Up; Where’s the Rest of the World
In the effort of gaining help in the continuing conflict in Afghanistan, the United States was able to convince NATO to supply another seven thousand soldiers to the region in an effort to prevent the fall of Afghanistan back into the hands of the Taliban and to hopefully push Afghanistan towards more economic and political security. These countries will provide soldiers that will actually do combat and those that will train, but with the new plan put in motion by General McChrystal, there is little difference between the two anymore. In combat, the best training that can be provided to a soldier is first hand combat experience.
These seven thousand soldiers brings the total number of soldiers deployed to Afghanistan over the next series of months to 37,000. These soldiers will connect with new Afghan forces in an attempt to train them on how to better control the countryside as well as fight off the Taliban. With President Obama announcing that he wants to start pulling soldiers out of Afghanistan in July of 2011, this “trial by fire” sort of tactic is one that could provide the necessary combat experience necessary for the Afghan Army to have some control. It worked in Iraq and it could very well work in Afghanistan.
The big issue with this is that NATO stepped up, but what about the rest of the world? India, a country that could be severely threatened by a Taliban run Afghanistan and Pakistan has decided to stay out of the fight despite the fact that Afghan stability would mean more stability in the region. China, who offers a border with Afghanistan hasn’t lost a single soldier in the conflict. Yet, they just recently threw $3.5 billion in there to get one of the last remaining copper reserves on the planet. In other words, these are nations that are watching the United States fight, but aren’t providing the combat boots to further fight the counterinsurgency.
While the ultimate goal is to try and increase the economic prosperity of the region, which Afghanistan has seen bits with (Apple’s Success), that doesn’t rule out the need for other countries to participate in the war effort. Afghanistan is going to need these sorts of direct investments to promote the economy and make it flourish; however, what is China going to do if America and the rest of NATO suddenly leaves? How will they defend the copper reserves when they have never participated in the counterinsurgency? These are all issues that China will face because they are trying to benefit without help.
The United States has done an effective job in convincing many allies to contribute soldiers, from dozens to a thousand, depending on the country. The US and Britain are going to attempt to convince Germany to deploy more soldiers which could bring anywhere from a few hundred upwards to at least a thousand sometime in January. France is, as usual, a lost cause. However, what the United States needs to do is stop asking the same Old Core (Thomas P.M. Barnett, search for functioning core) for continuous support. Instead, they need to start asking the New Core countries such as Brazil, China, Russia, and India to start throwing in some help.
The cost of this war is immense, but there’s no reason the United States should be doing it alone. It is a global effort to help bring countries into globalization where they can grow economically. It should not be a select few who do the hard labor and then the rest who come in and try and reap the benefits. The world should work together to ensure that these countries (i.e. Iraq and Afghanistan) become secure and able to grow both economically and politically. If this happens, we’ll start truly getting rid of terrorist states.
