The Long Haul in Afghanistan

By ROGER COHEN
New York Times

BRUSSELS

A whole post-cold-war European generation has grown up in peace, give or take “some Balkan horror on television,” which makes it hard to explain that “it’s a political and moral imperative to fight for our core values in the Hindu Kush.”

The words are those of Jaap de Hoop Scheffer of the Netherlands, the NATO secretary general. As he utters them, he leans forward, insisting that he doesn’t think “Europe is becoming pacifist.” But Afghanistan is testing European military resolve. It’s the long war. It’s Europe’s Iraq.

Just back from Afghanistan, where NATO now has some 50,000 troops deployed, de Hoop Scheffer tells me it will be four to five years before international forces can pull back, taking a limited role in support of the emergent Afghan National Army.

“A window of four to five years from now is an interesting window to watch in terms of reaching a situation where our forces are in the background,” he says. That takes us to 2013 or thereabouts. I wonder if a Europe more energized by carbon footprints than military footholds has the stomach for that.

Robert Gates, the U.S. defense secretary, has not concealed his concern over European commitment to the better war — better than Iraq, that is.

(Continued here.)