Gates warns against failure in Afghanistan
Foreign Desk Report

MUNICH—Failure in Afghanistan would directly threaten European security, US Defense Secretary Roberts Gates warned Friday as he sought to mobilize allies in Europe.
“Afghanistan not only was the source of attacks against the United States in 2001, but it is clear that Al-Qaeda and others in this area have played a role in these attacks that have taken place in Europe, so this is a direct security threat to Europe,” Gates told reporters on a trip from Vilnius to Munich, where he was to take part this weekend in an international security conference.
“Part of my speech at the security conference will be oriented at Europeans, not their governments, in an effort to try to explain why their security is tied to success in Afghanistan,” Gates said. Sometimes strident, sometimes sympathetic, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is walking a fine line in trying to win more public support and troops from Europe for NATO’s war in Afghanistan.
Pentagon officials say Gates is trying to provoke a public discussion in Europe about the mission. But some of his recent tough comments run the risk that European governments will be less likely to provide the aid he wants.
At a meeting with NATO colleagues in Lithuania this week and at a weekend security conference in Munich, one of Gates’ tasks is to bridge a gap in perceptions between Washington and some European nations about the very nature of the war. While European states prefer to bill the mission as a reconstruction or peacekeeping effort, other nations such as the United States and Britain stress they are in a tough counter-insurgency war against Taliban militants.
Before flying to Lithuania on Wednesday, Gates said NATO was in danger of becoming a two-tier alliance, split between countries willing to send troops to “fight and die to protect people’s security and others who are not.”
That comment seemed particularly aimed at countries such as Germany, which has confined its troops to the safer north of Afghanistan while others fight intense battles in the south.
Gates also said he would “nag” allies once again to provide more troops and resources for Afghanistan. But a NATO source said ministers asked Gates to tone down public criticism. “He’s been told by a number of people, and not just the most obvious ones like the Germans, to stop it,” the source said. The Pentagon chief adopted a softer tone with reporters in Vilnius on Thursday, declaring the 42,000-strong Afghan mission was not in trouble and NATO was not in crisis.
“The secretary’s clearly walking a fine line between wanting to encourage, prod or, as he said, nag our allies into seeing what more they can do to fulfill the outstanding military requirements and not alienating our friends in Europe,” Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said. “While it’s inherently difficult to walk that fine line, it’s clearly provoking discussion and that is a good first step,” Morrell told reporters traveling with Gates. Since Gates wrote to allies last month asking them to do more in Afghanistan, some German politicians and commentators have suggested Berlin consider sending troops to the south.