NATO Talks

Senior officials of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) continued to meet in Lithuania, as a dispute over NATO’s troop presence in Afghanistan continues.

Germany’s Spiegel magazine writes that the divide boils down to this: “While the United States, Great Britain, Canada and the Netherlands have placed their bets on the war against the Taliban and no longer want to bear this burden alone, countries like Germany are convinced that their reconstruction mission is working.”

Germany and France have been most criticized for their refusal to send more troops, but the Toronto Star reports that France may help Canada in Afghanistan.

An al-Jazeera analysis says that though Canada has taken a leadership role in the NATO force in Afghanistan, Canadians are increasingly frustrated with their troop presence there.

The Senlis Council, an international policy think tank, writes in a new report on Afghanistan that “if the current security situation in the South does not improve dramatically there is no possibility of holding the next presidential election” in 2009.

A recent report by the Atlantic Council, chaired by retired General James Jones, former NATO supreme allied commander, outlines what it says are enormous difficulties in pacifying and reconstructing Afghanistan.