Manley report: NATO/European reaction

Not much encouragement in these stories:

1) Toronto Star:

Paper ultimatums are unlikely to yield any wholesale solutions for Canada's vexing military struggle in southern Afghanistan, according to European diplomats and analysts familiar with the inner workings of NATO.

While expressing general agreement with the recommendations of Canada's blue-ribbon panel on Afghanistan, European military and political sources said that with the possible exception of the United States, no single ally is in a position to meet the call of providing more than symbolic reinforcements to the project to stabilize Kandahar province...

Political sources throughout Europe shrugged off the panel's recommendation that 1,000 additional NATO troops be found as a condition of Ottawa extending the Canadian mission beyond February 2009. Instead, those privy to the inner workings of NATO negotiations outlined a possibility of NATO allies conjuring so-called "confetti" deployments – small contingents of 100 or fewer troops to aid in the Kandahar mission.

France, Italy and Australia were cited as the most fertile hunting grounds for Canadian officials lobbying for fresh boots in Kandahar.

One diplomatic source acknowledged "conversations are underway" between French and Canadian officials on the possible addition of French forces and training teams to assist the building of the fledgling Afghan National Army...

Speculation abounds, meanwhile, that the U.S., which has the biggest presence in Afghanistan, with troops under its own command and also beneath NATO's umbrella, may by default be forced into filling any Canadian gaps in Kandahar, should Ottawa decide ultimately to draw down its troop levels...

2) Ottawa Citizen:

...
NATO spokesman James Appathurai said it is too soon to comment on the Manley panel's recommendations or its stinging criticism of the campaign against Taliban insurgents.

"The (Canadian) government has not taken a position. The Parliament is not taking a position on these recommendations," Mr. Appathurai told reporters during a briefing at alliance headquarters in Brussels. "So NATO will certainly not take a position at this time."

He said the report, which already has been reviewed by Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, was "thorough (and) very well written."

The European media responded to the report with a yawn. At a downtown Paris newsstand, only the London-based Financial Times mentioned the report.

Some analysts have warned that NATO itself could collapse if it fails in Afghanistan, and one German politician recently warned that a Canadian withdrawal could trigger the alliance's demise.