AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
Brussels: NATO left ambassadors baffled on Thursday with its apparently mixed messages over Afghanistan, as it cried for backup despite claiming it was beating tough resistance from Taliban insurgents.
“How can we not be baffled?” asked one diplomat from a NATO country. “On Monday, they call on us for immediate reinforcements, and on Wednesday they tell us the troops on the ground don't urgently need them.”
“Has there been badly coordinated communication from the start by the military and politicians in the alliance?” he said, after NATO statements in Brussels and Kabul had reported “success” in its major anti-Taliban offensive.
NATO officials held three meetings in recent days aimed at scraping together reinforcements after an urgent call by the commander of the alliance's mission in Afghanistan, General James Jones, for 2,000 extra troops.
Jones's call was prompted by the tougher-than-expected resistance shown by Taliban insurgents, especially in the restive southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar.
However, the 10,000-strong NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan has claimed in the last two days that it was close to wrapping up a major offensive against insurgents in the volatile south.
The Western military alliance is leading its biggest ever offensive against fighters loyal to the Taliban Islamic militia, which stepped up resistance this year after being ousted from power by a United States-led coalition in 2001.
NATO spokesman James Appathurai said “Operation Medusa”, launched on September 2, was not imperiled and claimed Jones was “confident that there are enough troops on the ground to carry through” the operation.
Nevertheless, another diplomatic source at NATO's headquarters in the Belgian capital said that the alliance was keeping up its calls for immediate reinforcements.
The head of NATO's military committee, General Raymond Henault, reiterated what he called the alliance's “firm” demand for backup from its 26 member countries”.
“We have managed to do our security work with the troops that we have, but we cannot do everything that we would like to do… especially when we are faced with such unexpected resistance,” Henault told a news conference.
Despite Jones's appeal and meetings of NATO military brass and diplomats this week, no countries have made formal offers to immediately deploy extra troops to the country.
Poland said Thursday that it would boost its contingent in northeast Afghanistan from 120 troops to about 1,000, but not until February.
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer welcomed the Polish pledge, but a NATO military spokesman told AFP: “We don't see for the moment how that will help our men on the ground in the south.”
Appathurai said some countries had given “positive indications” on possible troop contributions, but no concrete details of offers were available.
Other major NATO contributors to operations in Afghanistan, such as Germany, France and Spain, declined to send more troops since they already had large contingents tied up in other countries.
The US meanwhile is to discuss possible reinforcements with its allies ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in New York on September 21, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Wednesday.
NATO hopes it can stamp out the insurgency in southern Afghanistan as completely as possible before all activity is frozen by the harsh Afghan winter.
