Building the Afghan National Army/What will Euros do ?

1) "Canada mentors Afghan troops battling faulty weapons and inexperience".

2) "Afghan army could help unify a nation: Afghanistan hopes its nascent force, made up of all ethnic groups [my emphasis - MC], can be a unifying institution. But can it defend the nation without the U.S.? [and NATO? - MC]".

3) "No Larger Military Role for Germany as EU Debates Afghanistan".

Top German politicians rebuffed increased pressure from NATO Monday to send troops to hot spots in southern Afghanistan, but they did agree to consider increasing civilian reconstruction and police training efforts...

There was also talk in Brussels of an EU fact-finding mission in Afghanistan to gather concrete information on the current situation and assess the impact an EU police training mission could make.

"The EU stands ready to do even more to contribute to the collective effort and I think that a (European) police operation could be of great value," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said...

...the French expressed caution...

"On the police, we need to see things more clearly," she said. "To avoid launching something that could lack cohesion, we need to send a fact-finding mission to Afghanistan [good grief! the UN Security Council is doing that right now - MC]."

4) "EU Debates Role in Afghanistan".

European Union foreign and defense ministers meeting in Brussels today are expected to engage in a heated debate about the 25-member bloc’s future role in Afghanistan.

Before the meeting, the NATO general secretary Jaap de Hoop Scheffer sharply criticized the European Union of doing too little to help the reconstruction process in Afghanistan...

For the German government, the key issue is how to better coordinate efforts on the ground. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for closer cooperation between the European Union and NATO. She said the situation needed "a combination of military, humanitarian and reconstruction aid."..

At the Brussels meeting, the ministers are to study plans for assistance to reform Afghanistan's security sector, including training for Afghan police forces.

Several EU countries -- including Germany, Spain and Italy -- are already working on national police training and other schemes in Afghanistan that could be brought under a joint EU banner...

5) Italian government under pressure.

Italian prime minister Romano Prodi said on Monday Italy will not withdraw its 1,900-strong contingent from Afghanistan while calling for an international conference to discuss rising violence in the country. "We have always said that the military solution is not enough if it is not accompanied with a political decision," Prodi told broadcaster Sky Italia TG24...

Italy's mission is however staunchly opposed by left-wing members of the fragile and fractious centre-left government coalition who want a withdrawal of Italian troops [sound familiar? MC] as the one carried out in Iraq. Rome is pulling out its entire contingent there by the end of the year...

Prime Minister Harper will certainly be pressing the Euros, both in NATO and as EU, to do more at the November 28 to 29 NATO summit in Riga, Latvia.

Update: A useful post at Flit arguing that:

-NATO needs a third combat brigade
-reconstruction has already accomplished a lot
-over half the 3,700 fatalities trumpeted in the Canadian media were likely combatants.