By Doug Bandow
Afghanistan is supposed to be a NATO war. But most of America’s European allies do little, at least little of value to combat the Taliban. For instance, Germany insists on putting its troops as far away from conflict as possible in the north. But even that isn’t enough. Now the Germans are asking for U.S. military support.
US commanders are weighing plans to send more American troops to northern Afghanistan, a region under the command of German forces, a US official said on Tuesday.
The likely deployment follows a rise in violent attacks by insurgents around Kunduz and elsewhere in regional command north, the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
German media have reported about 2,500 US troops would head north, including about 1,000 focused on training Afghan security forces.
But US and NATO commanders have yet to announce how many troops might be assigned to the north, which has been relatively calm compared to the country’s east and south.
“They (the Germans) asked for additional support,” said the official.
Washington spends far too much on the military and American forces are stretched thin. One remedy would be to pull U.S. troops out of Europe, where they aren’t needed. Let the Europeans, who have more than ten times the GDP of Russia, defend themselves.
Doug Bandow, American Conservative Defense Alliance