Gates claims Europe has BDS over Afghan effort

Maybe what Europeans are 'confused' about is why America has 130,000 troops in Iraq, but wants Europe to exhaust their militaries and treasuries because Afghanistan is so utterly "critical" and "vital", but not critical enough for Bush to withdraw troops from Iraq.

They may also be 'confused' as to why Gates has presented Iraq as the Central Front in the Global War On Terror, but now says that Iraq is "a very different kind of threat" than Afghanistan. Failed state? Al-Qaeda? Puppet government backed by foreign occupation troops? Lack of a national identity that rises above tribal and ethnic identities? Regional allies worried about how the failure will affect them? Both Iraq and Afghanistan seem very similar.In both cases, Bush stumbled into complex situations with an ultra-simplistic plan: kill the bad guys and live happily ever after. Both cases involve "liberation" and promised "prosperity". Both cases involve inept, impotent, and compromised national armies that are perpetually in training. Both cases feature an utter failure in reconstruction efforts that deeply undermine the military effort. Both Iraq and Afghanistan are examples of the Administration's ridiculous portrayal of an insurgency as a conventional war scenario like WW2. Yet they are somehow "very different", and Europeans and 'confused'.

What do we keep hearing about the threat of failure in Iraq? That the terrorists will make that country a base. This is exactly the same thing we hear about the threat of failure in Afghanistan. Yet Gates is concerned that Europeans don't see Afghanistan as a very different kind of threat than Iraq.

The early rationale for Iraq was that it would be a gigantic Battle To The Death with Radical Islam, and we (including Europe) had to fight them there so that we wouldn't end up fighting them here. They will follow us home, remember? After it was clear that all of the terrorists in the world weren't flocking to Iraq in some kind of final go-for-broke conflict, Bush abandoned that reasoning and moved to the "base of terror" and "emboldening our enemies" line. This is the same line he uses on Afghanistan.

In essence, Gates is saying that the European public has BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) and doesn't support the Afghan effort because they want to make Bush look bad.

This is the neocon all-purpose tool in what passes for critical thinking: our plan is brilliant, our cause is just, victory is assured, and it is all worth it - but you just can't see that because you are blinded by your hatred of Bush.

Europe has largely bailed out of Iraq. NATO wasn't involved there. The NATO alliance has kept Europe from
bolting thus far, though that may be changing.
If Bush would pull a few thousand more troops out of Iraq to make up for Europe's reluctance, it would go a long way toward clearing up any 'confusion' in Europe. But that would make Bush appear as if NATO wasn't his own military reserve force that he can command as he wishes.

Aside from all this, it appears that the Administration has bought a clue and is finally coming to the realisation that our allies aren't pawns anymore.

Gates Says Anger Over Iraq Hurts Afghan Effort

By THOM SHANKER

Published: February 8, 2008

MUNICH — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Friday that many Europeans are confused about NATO’s security mission in Afghanistan, and that they do not support the alliance effort because they opposed the American-led invasion of Iraq.

“I worry that for many Europeans the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan are confused,” Mr. Gates said as he flew here to deliver an address at an international security conference.

“I think that they combine the two,” Mr. Gates added. “Many of them, I think, have a problem with our involvement in Iraq, and project that to Afghanistan, and do not understand the very different — for them — the very different kind of threat.”

The comments were the first time Mr. Gates had explicitly linked European antipathy to American policy in Iraq with why large segments of the public here do not support the NATO security and reconstruction operation in Afghanistan.

Even more, Mr. Gates’ assessment was an unusually candid acknowledgment from a senior member of President Bush’s cabinet that the war in Iraq has exacted a direct, and significant, political cost, even among Washington’s closest allies.

Over recent weeks, Mr. Gates has made a public and private effort to persuade NATO governments to offer up more combat troops as well as military and police trainers for the Afghan mission. At the conclusion of a two-day meeting of NATO defense ministers in Lithuania Friday morning, Mr. Gates expressed confidence that “a number of the allies are considering what more they might be able to do.”