TIME Europe Magazine: Afghanistan (Is NATO stepping beyond its charter?) : Old Alliance, New World

TIME Europe Magazine

Is NATO stepping beyond its charter? Afghanistan: Old Alliance, New World

The Afghanistan deployment, Nato's first mission outside Europe and North America, seems to answer a question that Nato member governments and their taxpayers have increasingly been asking: Is there still a role for the alliance established in 1949 as a counterbalance to the Soviet bloc? Watching the International Security Assistance Force (isaf) on the ground in the north and west of Afghanistan, under Nato command, there seems no doubt that the alliance has rediscovered a sense of purpose. The isaf, mandated by the United Nations to help the Afghan government improve security, has already taken over this duty in some of the most fractious parts of the country from the U.S.-led liberation forces, Operation Enduring Freedom (oef). In Phase 3, to begin later this year, the isaf is supposed to grow from 9,000 to some 15,000 troops and take on responsibility for six further provinces, while the oef reduces its deployment by about 1,500 to 16,500.

The timing of these moves depends on how quickly the Netherlands decides to commit its new troops — assuming it does so. Opponents of the deployment say Dutch troops would inherit a situation that's still out of control. "They're sending a reconstruction unit in where the oef hasn't yet succeeded in stamping out terrorism," says Lousewies van der Laan, deputy parliamentary leader of the left-liberal D66, which is in the government coalition. "The Americans want to leave before the job is done, and figure the public picture is less bad if they put a Dutch team in there. We're not willing to participate in that political game. We don't want to be mopping the floor when the faucet is still running."

EU-Digest contacted the PVDA (Labour Party), the largest opposition party in the Netherlands to get their opinion on the Dutch Afghanistan Mission. Sherlo Esajas, spokesman for Wouter Bos, leader of the PVDA told EU-Digest."In principle we are not against such a mission, but we do have some critical questions of which three are crucial.

a) the achievability of reconstruction in the Province of Uruzgan, where there are major points of difference between the different tribal communities and where the Taliban is most active. b) how to avoid keeping the mission Enduring Freedom separated from the present mission. We voted against the mission Enduring Freedom in parliament, because of Human Rights issues involved. C) a divided parliament can not justify sending a mission.

So we need to discuss this issue in detail and then our fraction will take a decision."