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British minister blasts NATO allies over Afghan troop offers
London (AFP) Jan 15, 2009 British Defence Secretary John Hutton criticised the failure of fellow NATO countries to send enough troops to Afghanistan Thursday, saying that "warm words" alone are not enough. Other nations cannot keep relying on the United States to shoulder the main burden in Afghanistan, Hutton said in his sharpest comments to date. With nearly 9,000 personnel in Afghanistan, Britain is the second-biggest contributor to the ISAF force after the United States. President-elect Barack Obama is reportedly set to agree to send up to 30,000 more troops. The number of troops sent by other nations trails off significantly after Britain and the US -- the third biggest contributor is Germany, with around 3,400 troops. "There should be no-one in NATO who believes that all that is needed is a bit of soft power, a bit of nice warm words for the Afghan government. That is not going to beat Al-Qaeda and the Taliban," Hutton said in a press conference in London ahead of a keynote speech later. "We need a full complement of effective forces and we don't have those in theatre at the moment." Without naming specific countries who he wanted to do more, Hutton added that it was not fair to expect the Americans to do all the "heavy lifting." "We are going to have to do more, all of us in ISAF need to understand that, if we want this mission to be successful," Hutton said. In his speech Hutton was set to accuse other European countries of "freeloading" on the back of US and British military commitments in Afghanistan, according to the Daily Telegraph and Financial Times. Speaking to reporters, Hutton added: "We've got to step up to the plate, everyone in NATO's got to do that and the point of my remarks later on today will be to say it is not honest, credible or I think sustainable for us constantly to say, 'well the Americans can do it all.' "That isn't an alliance, that's one-way traffic. That's not good enough." Share This Article With Planet Earth
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