"In comments reported Wednesday by the Los Angeles Times, Gates said that while U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan are doing a terrific job, he is concerned that NATO allies are not well trained in counterinsurgency operations."
Now, he says NATO troops are doing a wonderful job.
Wow! Gee, Mr. Gates! Thanks!
"Gates made the remark a day after Pentagon officials acknowledged he has concerns about the allies' ability to battle an insurgency in Afghanistan."
..."Our NATO allies are playing a significant role, particularly Canada and the United Kingdom and the Dutch. This kind of role, even with the addition of our marines, will remain essentially the same."Oh, you mean getting killed at a rate higher than any other forces there, and then getting slagged off by the U.S. Defence Secretary?
If you don't mind, I think we'll pass on that one.
These asinine remarks came close to the sixth anniversary (April 18, 2002) of the date when U.S. pilots dumped bombs on Canadian troops on night exercises on the ground in Afghanistan and killed four of them and wounded a further eight. Nice work! Canada's first casualties in the war, and the U.S. did it.
Then they killed another one in September, 2006. Dropped a bomb on him too.And they've been finishing off the British troops, too.
As far as I know, the Dutch have escaped the U.S. bombs - so far, anyway.
As far as Canadian expertise goes, they had this to say:
"I think our allies over there, this is not something they have any experience with," he told the Times.First of all, Mr. Gates, I think the number of your allies is diminishing by the minute.
Your NATO "allies" might do a bit better if you'd stop blowing them up.
And as far as our success with counterinsurgency: "Pentagon officials acknowledged he [Gates] has concerns about the allies' ability to battle an insurgency in Afghanistan."By the way, how's it going in Iraq, eh?
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