It Was Never About Cowboy Diplomacy

The left loved to claim that the European failure to commit more NATO troops to the Afghan operation in support of the US under NATO alliance commitments was the result of President Bush's cowboy diplomacy.

That was always a naive and foolish position, because the Europeans had let their military capabilities slide and simply didn't have the troops to commit, especially for a military operation.

Now, the stark reality is that even President Obama, whom the media portrayed as the great savior of transatlantic relations, can't do any better than President Bush did.

All that Obama has to show for his meetings with European leaders is a couple hundred troops.

Gordon Brown was the only one to offer substantial help. He offered to send several hundred extra British soldiers to provide security during the August election, but even that fell short of the thousands of combat troops that the US was hoping to prise from the Prime Minister.
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Just two other allies made firm offers of troops. Belgium offered to send 35 military trainers and Spain offered 12. Mr Obama’s host, Nicolas Sarkozy, refused his request.

The derisory response threatened to tarnish Mr Obama’s European tour, which yesterday included a spellbinding performance in Strasbourg in which he offered the world a vision of a future free of nuclear weapons.

Mr Obama – who has pledged 21,000 more troops to combat the growing insurgency and is under pressure from generals to supply up to 10,000 more – used the eve of Nato’s 60th anniversary summit to declare bluntly that it was time for allies to do their share. “Europe should not simply expect the United States to shoulder that burden alone,” he said. “This is a joint problem it requires a joint effort.”

He said that failing to support the US surge would leave Europe open to a fresh terrorist offensive. “It is probably more likely that al-Qaeda would be able to launch a serious terrorist attack on Europe than on the United States because of proximity,” he said.

The presidential charm offensive failed to move fellow Nato countries. President Sarkozy told Mr Obama that France would not be sending reinforcements to bolster its existing force northeast of Kabul.

These troops aren't even for combat roles, but to support and train Afghan troops. They're not going to be used to fight the Taliban and al Qaeda.

NATO's European members ought to be reconsidering their security and defense expenditures, because the failure to send more troops is indicative of a much larger problem. More than 60 years of relying on the US to provide security has atrophied European military capabilities, and now that the US is requesting assistance on a mission that has global and European import, the Europeans are coming up seriously long on rhetoric and short on commitment.