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NATO Understaffed in Afghanistan

Reports in recent days of the personnel situation for the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) mission in Afghanistan that European allies of the United States are refusing or stalling in sending more troops to the embattled country have sparked a reexamination of NATO capabilities and overall needs. Faced with rising terror attacks and a somewhat resurgent Taliban, Washington is eager to calm the situation before it, like Iraq, spirals out of control.

Bryan Whitman, who is the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, says of the Afghan mission that ?This is probably the most important mission NATO has done in many years.? The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks upon the U.S. were followed up by NATO, for the first time in the organization?s history, enacting the collective security clause that maintains an attack on any NATO member is an attack on every NATO member.

America is determined to see the multi-national operations in Afghanistan succeed, according to Whitman. ?This is a bold and aggressive mission, an out-of-area mission, and a mission that needs the resources that were outlined in the combined joint statement of requirements. The United States are the largest contributor of personnel and materiel to Operation Enduring Freedom, with 21,000 men and women on the ground,? Whitman notes. NATO?s other two dozen or so members are being asked to up their contributions.