Moreover, Gates emphasized, having in mind the Fulda area, Germany, where ground invasion of the Soviet troops into Western Europe was considered the most probable: " The majority the European troops have not been trained to perform counterinsurgency operations, they have been trained to fight in the Fulda Corridor”. Thereafter, the main American hawk has not missed an opportunity to remind of the US successful operations in eastern Afghanistan for edification.
It is necessary to mention that southern Afghanistan where the most efficient Taliban forces are concentrated, is the region currently supervised in general by contingents of three countries: Canada, the Great Britain and the Netherlands. These contingents include also relatively small detachments of the East European countries.
The aforesaid rather sensational statement of the US Secretary of Defense has been made against the background of the failed talks of Gates with his European colleagues on increase of the European troops in Afghanistan. Having suffered a painful fiasco, Gates had to request President Bush to send additional 3200 Mariners to Afghanistan to be mainly stationed in the southern area of the country.
It was the failure at his talks with the European member-states that probably provoked Gates to give such tough and humbling assessment of the allies that practically immediately evoked negative reaction on the both sides of the Atlantics.
For instance, the Dutch government immediately called the US ambassador in the Hague for explanations, and Minister of Defense of this country Eimert van Middelkoop in response to the criticism claimed that the Dutch soldiers sent to Afghanistan "have enough experience and skill".
The similar situation was in the Great Britain where the parliament demanded to receive explanations from the US ambassador.
However the most serious scandal flared up in Canada where the statement almost cost the armchair to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He is a strong supporter of further cooperation with the USA in the Afghanistan settlement. Now the liberal opposition blamed him for provision of “the Canadian cannon fodder” to the Americans, and demanded that he resign.
The opposition was supported by ordinary citizens who started a protest rally. It was not the first time when the people of Canada expressed their dissatisfaction with the presence of the Canadian troops in Afghanistan. According to recent polls, 47 per cent of Canadians support returning the soldier home, 17 per cent consider it necessary to maintain the Canadian presence in Afghanistan at the current level, and 31 per cent say that the troops should stay in Afghanistan, however, they should not be involved in combat operations.
Only the Baltic states were not offended with the Gates's criticism. For instance, Prime Minister of Estonia Andrus Ansip claimed that the accusations of poor-skill cannot relate to the Estonian servicemen because British General Jakob Page, Commander of the NATO troops in southern Afghanistan, said that he would be glad to have all his subordinates as good soldiers as Estonians.
Such sharp reaction of Europe disquieted Washington, which explained the events by a mistake of journalists who misunderstood the Secretary of Defense. Gates himself urgently took a phone and start calling to his European allies emphasizing that he is delighted with the behavior of their troops.
In general, strangely enough but the Washington’s criticism is well-grounded. On the other side, to be honest, Europe in return has something to present to the USA.
In particular, according to Gates, the British command pays too much attention to cooperation with local field commanders in order to minimize its casualties, and ignores the Afghanistan regular army trained by the American instructors, thus doubting in their skill too.
The Guardian in turn mentioned that one of these days " the British commanders accused the USA of the use of brutal force, including air bombing, and expressed opinion that it is a consequence of insufficient experience in counterinsurgency operations ".
In return, Gates accused Europe of copying actions of the Soviet troops and of paying excessive attention to humanitarian problems that inevitably will lead to strengthening of the Taliban troops and increased death toll of the allies.
The Old World countries claimed that at the beginning of the Afghanistan campaign Washington preferred “a cavalry attack” to report on its early victory without careful examination of the situation. Besides, the USA actually ignored the opinion of Europeans about development of humanitarian and restoration initiatives. Nowadays the war with the Taliban troops that became stronger due to the faults of Americans, will be long and painful.
Thus, the accident in the best regulated NATO family was reduced to mutual reproaches in incompetence and unpreparedness of the USA (or Europe) to continue the war with the Taliban insurgents in the severe environmental conditions.
The NATO countries have lost the support of their military adventure in Afghanistan and try to shift the blame on each other. Besides, currently NATO discusses possible withdrawal of the main troops and their replacement not with the regular Afghanistan army but contingents of future potential NATO members. For instance, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili expressed readiness to send Georgian troops to Afghanistan. He was supported by the Ukrainian advocates of membership in NATO. Azerbaijan also examines proposals to send its troops to Afghanistan.
These countries, obviously, already know, what for they need “the foreign land” of Afghanistan and are ready to sacrifice their citizens for the sake of a propitious smile of Uncle Sam who may be disrespected by his stronger allies.
