Canada to its NATO allies: How about a little help here?
SHAH MARAI/AFP A Canadian senate panel has some frosty words for the more stingy NATO allies. The Canadians, along with the United States, the Brits, and the Dutch, have been doing yeoman’s work in southern Afghanistan for months now. Meanwhile, France, Germany, Italy and Spain have kept their troops out of harm’s way, and have ...
SHAH MARAI/AFP
A Canadian senate panel has some frosty words for the more stingy NATO allies. The Canadians, along with the United States, the Brits, and the Dutch, have been doing yeoman’s work in southern Afghanistan for months now. Meanwhile, France, Germany, Italy and Spain have kept their troops out of harm’s way, and have resisted offering up reinforcements. Patience in Ottawa is running thin:
We expect the allies to step up,” said Senator Colin Kenny, the committee chair. “They must know that if they’re not going to step up, we’re going to take another look at the situation. It’s an alliance and everyone is expected to be shoulder-to-shoulder on this,” he told a news conference.
Canada’s broadside comes shortly after a diplomatic dust-up with Italy. The Italian government took umbrage at a public letter from several hawkish NATO countries, including Canada, calling for a stronger commitment to Afghanistan. For now, Italian feathers have been smoothed, but expect more alliance tension as the Taliban emerges from its winter nap.
David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist
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