In The Face Of NATO Vacuum U.S. Looks At Sending More Troops To Afghanistan

I knew this was going to happen and even said so a number of months ago when the NATO members were all hemming and hawing about commitments to the War in Afghanistan. Here's what the Pentagon is saying in this article here from the International Herald Tribune:

The Pentagon is considering sending as many as 7,000 more American troops to Afghanistan next year to make up for a shortfall in contributions from NATO allies, senior Bush administration officials said.
They said the step would push the number of American forces there to roughly 40,000, the highest level since the war began more than six years ago, and would require at least a modest reduction in troops from Iraq.
The planning began in recent weeks, reflecting a growing resignation to the fact that NATO is unable or unwilling to contribute more troops despite public pledges of an intensified effort in Afghanistan from the presidents and prime ministers who attended an alliance summit meeting in Bucharest, Romania, last month.

There's a couple of things at work here - I think President Bush wants to get more troops into Afghanistan before his term ends as he sees that area vulnerable to pull out of troops by the new administration. Secondly, I think the U.S. is extremely nervous about some of these "peace talks" between the Taliban and the new Pakistani government - it's my view that Pakistan is going to be extremely vulnerable when it is all said and done and having 7,000-10,000 more troops in Afghanistan makes it easier to help handle a new attack inside Pakistan.

But the fact of the matter is that NATO has wimped out. The only country to have stood up and actually pledged a significant amount of troops was France with a measly 700 but the fact is, those 700 troops are NOT there yet.

So in essence, like time and time again, these NATO countries don't have any qualms in agreeing on the severity of the situation in Afghanistan and how the Taliban are surging, but it has to be land on the shoulders of the U.S. to carry the burden. What else is new?

U.S. may send more troops to Afghanistan

The shortfalls in troop commitments have cast doubt on claims by President George W. Bush and his aides that NATO was stepping up to provide more help in Afghanistan, where the government of President Hamid Karzai faces a resurgent threat from the Taliban and remnants of Al Qaeda.
The increasing proportion of United States troops, from about half to about two-thirds of the foreign troops in Afghanistan, would be likely to result in what one senior administration official described as "the re-Americanization" of the war.

"There are simply going to be more American forces than we've ever had there," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing future military planning.
A dozen NATO countries have pledged a total of about 2,000 troops, according to senior NATO officials, who provided the information on condition of anonymity according to standard diplomatic rules. Senior alliance commanders in Afghanistan have said they need about 10,000 more troops.
Only one country so far has actually begun preparing more troops to deploy: France, which is sending 700 to Afghanistan, NATO officials said.