Afstan: Only the Anglosphere doing the heavy lifting

Plus the Dutch, who are effectively part of the 'sphere anyway. The Washington Post lays it out in an editorial.

IN AFGHANISTAN, the NATO alliance is engaged in the bloodiest and most important land battle in its 57-year history. Some 6,000 British and Canadian troops have been fighting near-daily engagements with the resurgent Taliban militia in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, killing more than 500 of the enemy in the past month while suffering three dozen deaths of their own soldiers. The campaign is fateful in several respects: It could prove a turning point both for Afghanistan and for NATO, which hopes to demonstrate that an alliance forged for the Cold War in Europe can tackle the West's 21st-century challenges.

For that reason, it's been encouraging to see the courage and apparent effectiveness of the British and Canadian troops, who are supported by U.S. and Afghan forces; it's been equally disheartening to witness the response of other NATO governments to an urgent request for more soldiers and aircraft to ensure the Taliban's defeat. At a special pledging conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, the alliance's 26 governments failed to make any new commitments of troops...

...The NATO force, which totals 8,000, including Dutch troops in a third province [Uruzgan], is barely adequate for its principal planned mission, which was to help extend the authority of the Afghan government to southern Afghanistan and support aid and development projects...

...The unexpected intensity of the combat has raised domestic pressure on the Canadian and British governments, though both are so far standing firm. But other NATO governments are failing to commit their own soldiers as reinforcements; even worse, governments that already have troops in Afghanistan, such as Germany, are refusing to consider transferring some of them to the south from the relatively peaceful bases they occupy...

The Post neglects to mention another member of the 'sphere, the Aussies, who are stepping up to help the Dutch.

First contingent of 400 Australian soldiers have arrived in Afghanistan to set up their base in the southern Uruzgan Province.

A press statement issued here on Thursday said the Australian commitment was in partnership with the Netherlands and forms part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)s mission expansion into Southern Afghanistan...

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) - RTF Element is made up of approximately 400 personnel and a number of IMV Bushmaster Vehicles, in addition to several Australian Light Armoured Vehicles (ASLAVs) based on cavalry regiment core elements...

Note that this commitment is taken on while the Aussies are also heavily involved in East Timor, Iraq, and the Solomons. No wonder the Australian Army is being significantly strengthened. One awaits such a specific plan for the Canadian Army from the Conservative government. One also hopes that the Conservatives will quietly abandon their silly campaign promises to put new regular Army battalions in Goose Bay, Bagotville, Trenton and Comox (though there may be a case for Comox).