Afstan: Compare and contrast

1) UK:

The Government is preparing to send more troops to Afghanistan despite an admission from Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, yesterday that the Army is already being asked to do more than was originally planned.

Mr Browne was involved in heated exchanges in the Commons over Conservative claims that three Army battalions were being prepared to go to Afghanistan to replace the two already there – an increase of between 500-600 soldiers.

He told MPs that force levels were "under review" and he would not add to speculation about future deployments.

The preparations to send more troops will raise concerns about so-called "mission creep" in Afghanistan...

A spokesman said no decision had yet been taken on how many troops would be sent to replace the two commando battalions in Afghanistan, which are due to return to the UK in April.

Liam Fox, the Conservative defence spokesman, said the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards and the 1st Battalion The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment were preparing to deploy to Afghanistan. Dr Fox said troops serving in Afghanistan had reported problems with mine protected vehicles, a shortage of armoured vehicles and a lack of night vision equipment. "If we haven't got enough equipment for two battalions, how will we have enough for three?" he asked.

Mr Browne said all urgent operational requirements "approved by the chain of command" had gone ahead and denied reports that some had been turned down on financial grounds...

2) Italy:

Italy will keep soldiers in Afghanistan but will not increase their number, Prime Minister Romano Prodi said on Monday, insisting he would not give in to hard-left government factions demanding a pull-out.
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Pacifists in Italy's centre left have threatened to vote against re-financing the 1,900-strong force in Afghanistan -- something parliament must do every six months. That would be a potentially fatal blow to Prodi's 9-month-old government...

"It's not being blunted. The (Afghanistan) undertaking isn't an undertaking of war [emphasis added]," he [Prodi] said, pointing out Italian troops were not deployed in the cities of Kabul and Herat, not in the battlefields against the Taliban, and that would not change.

Prodi said Italy, whose post-World War Two constitution rejects war as a way of solving international conflicts, had a duty to take part in military missions aimed at peace and stability.

The commander of the 32,000-strong NATO force, General David Richards, told the Guardian newspaper on Monday that he needed more troops to be able to win the Afghan conflict within a year...

Update:

3) Germany:

The German government fears that expanding its Afghanistan mission will lead to further requests from international allies.

The office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel fears that sending six Tornado reconnaissance planes to aid the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan may be seen as a "signal of opening," German news magazine Der Spiegel writes in its latest issue, citing unnamed sources inside the chancellor's office.

Berlin reportedly anticipates that a "wish list" of requests, such as for more troops, would follow. Merkel nevertheless wants to send the additional planes.

Germany, through a parliamentary mandate, has some 2,700 soldiers stationed with ISAF but are confined to stay in relatively peaceful northern Afghanistan. Germany in the past has come under fire from NATO officials for confining their troops to the north while the death toll in the south is rising.

Observers say the German government is eager to prove to its allies that it wants to provide additional aid in Afghanistan. The deployment of reconnaissance planes is seen as a relatively safe way to do so, at least when it comes to human casualties...