With Dutch troops set to depart Afghanistan, the alliance forged in the Cold War is fraying

Over the last year, many have wondered just how long our NATO allies were going to continue with troops in Afghanistan when the current President Obama does nothing but diss our allies. He is foregoing a Euopean Summit this spring which the American Presidents attend. The reason: Mr. Obama is scaling back from his record-setting foreign travel last year.

European Leaders must be thinking he had time to make a pitch for the Olympics but has no time to attend a Euopean Summit? Think they are realizing rapidly that Obama is not their best friend. It has been obvious for months that Obama puts our enemies ahead of our allies.

What is he going to do in Afghanistan as more countries pull out their troops? Time will tell how frayed Obama has made our NATO Alliance.

The Dutch retreat

With Dutch troops set to depart Afghanistan, the alliance forged in the Cold War is fraying

Ian Buruma
Amsterdam — From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Published on Monday, Mar. 08, 2010 6:33PM EST Last updated on Tuesday, Mar. 09, 2010 3:28AM EST

The Dutch army has been operating as part of NATO in a remote and unruly part of Afghanistan since 2006. Fighting against the Taliban has been heavy at times. Twenty-one Dutch lives have been lost, out of about 1,800 men and women.

The Dutch were supposed to have been relieved by troops from a NATO partner in 2008. No one volunteered. So their mission was extended for another two years. But now the Social Democrats in the Dutch coalition government have declared that enough is enough. The Dutch troops will have to come home. Since the Christian Democrats do not agree, the government has fallen.

This is highly inconvenient for U.S. President Barack Obama, who needs all the help he can get in Afghanistan, even from small allies, if only for political reasons.

To many Americans, especially of the neoconservative persuasion, Dutch behaviour might confirm all their suspicions about perfidious Europeans, addicted to material comforts, while remaining childishly dependent on U.S. military protection. When the going gets tough, they argue, the Europeans bow out.

It is true that two horrendous world wars have taken the glamour out of war for most Europeans (Britain is a slightly different story). The Germans, in particular, have no stomach for military aggression, hence their reluctance in Afghanistan to take on anything but simple police tasks. Mindful of Ypres, Warsaw, or Stalingrad, not to mention Auschwitz and Treblinka, many regard this as a good thing. Still, there are times when pacifism, even in Germany, is an inadequate response to a serious menace.

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