One anti-American trope of the Left is that America spends so much on its military, thus implying that we’re a belligerant nation. The counter is that we do so because our allies shirk their duty in maintaining the peace. Nowhere is this more obvious than in Afghanistan.

The U.S. is also complaining that NATO members come unequipped for war. There is a need for more air reconnaissance, for example, but few NATO countries have UAVs or recon aircraft. In Europe, getting soldiers killed in Afghanistan, and spending money to send them there, is not popular. Even less popular is the expense of training and equipping troops for these kinds of operations. Many NATO nations, like Germany, do as little as they can get away with in Afghanistan, and that is irritating to the countries that have troops in combat (like Britain, Canada, Australia and the U.S.).

NATO military officials understand that not enough foreign troops are in Afghanistan to shut down the Taliban, but also realize that unless the Afghan government can deal with its own problems (corruption, mainly, but lack of administrative skills, religious bigotry and incompetence), the country will continue to be a lawless, poor, and violent backwater in a rapidly changing world. The senior people in the Afghan government are trying, but the obstacles are formidable.

The drug trade fits in with traditional Afghan, “get all you can, when you can, any way  you can” attitudes. Meantime, the establishment of a national government has backfired in some respects. Religious conservatives are trying to impose their own version of Islam in the entire country via the courts. This is causing unrest, just as it did when the Taliban tried the same thing in the 1990s. The national government has a tricky problem here, since religious tolerance is not an Afghan custom. In the past, the different parts of the country simply ignored each other, because there was no national government that actually imposed national laws everywhere. Whenever that has been tried, like in the 1970s by a communist dominated government, the results are disastrous (as in rebellion and much civil disorder).

UPDATE: Germany won’t put its soldiers in harm’s way.

A bitter diplomatic row between Germany and the United States deepened yesterday after Berlin flatly rejected demands from Washington that it deploy troops in war-torn southern Afghanistan and angrily dismissed the request as “impertinent” and a “fantastic cheek”.

Germany currently has some 3,200 soldiers stationed in comparatively tranquil northern Afghanistan and the capital Kabul as part of the current Nato peacekeeping mission. It has been urged to deploy troops in the south before but has consistently refused.

Yesterday however, it became clear that Washington had stepped up pressure on Berlin to commit troops to the south. The move followed increased Taliban attacks and threats from Canada that it would withdraw its Afghanistan contingent completely unless more Nato troops were sent south.