Elsevier, The Netherlands

America Rightly Points to the Benefit of having European Troops [in Afghanistan]

By Eric Vrijsen

Translated By Dorian de Wind

Robert Gates points to international terrorism and the interest Europe has in the fight in Southern Afghanistan.  Europe should not misunderstand the warning of the American Secretary of Defense.

February 11, 2008

The Netherlands - Elsevier – Original text (Dutch)

“The threat posed by violent Islamic extremism is real, and it is not going to go away,” Gates said during a security conference in Munich.

Gates recalled the 14 extremists who were arrested last month in Barcelona on suspicion of preparing for a bomb attack in the metro.

According to the Secretary, they were in close contact with the terrorist groups that murdered presidential candidate Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan.  According to Spanish authorities, one of the remaining fugitives, all members of the terrorist cell, is hiding in the Netherlands.

Split

Afghanistan must not again become the breeding place for terrorism, warned Gates. He called on the European countries not only to send more troops, but also to act in a less fragmented manner.

Some NATO partners send helicopters to Afghanistan with the express instructions that they will not be flown at night. Germany only permits its jet fighters to take photographs. According to Gates, the threat exists that a split will develop between NATO countries that carry out combat missions and countries that do not accept for their military to be killed in action.

Many European countries have sent seconded troops to Afghanistan in order to be in Washington’s good books, without having to participate in the even more dangerous fight in Iraq. Now that the Americans are scoring successes in Iraq, they claim one and the same strategy for Afghanistan.  That puts pressure on the European allies.

Guilty?

Aren’t the Americans themselves to be blamed for the situation in Afghanistan, Gates was asked in Munich?  After all, the United States has, between 1979 and 1989, fully armed the Islamic Mujahedeen in order to fight against the occupiers from the Soviet Union.

Gates had an answer for that. “If we bear a particular responsibility, it has more to do with our abandonment of the country in 1989 than our assistance of it in 1979.” The European countries could not say much about this, either.

ORIGINAL DUTCH TEXT HERE