European members other than Britain and the Netherlands cannot decide whether to join NATO’s first ground war in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, contenders for the Liberal Party’s leadership in Canada, such as Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae, are carefully distancing themselves from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s firm commitment to forcefully oust the Taliban so that nation-building and development can begin.

In Afghanistan, European governments and Canadian opposition leaders must realize two things: the fight is not about pulling America’s chestnuts out of the fire, and there cannot be development and state building until there is security. Islamist extremists are trying to regain control of a state from which they will likely terrorize the West, including Europe and Canada.

When the United States defeated the Taliban in early 2002, European countries and Canada under a UN mandate put in a considerable effort to stabilize the new regime in Kabul. In 2003, NATO took over the command and planning of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) because it was simply too difficult and big to be run by any contributing member. European and Canadian stabilization and reconstruction efforts have been crucial in keeping Afghanistan afloat ever since. But the scene is changing from merely rebuilding Afghanistan to staving off an attempt by a mixture of Taliban, al Qaeda, and Drug Lord warriors to take back the country from the democratically elected government under Hamid Karzai.

In the last several months, British and Canadian troops, assisted by American forces and equipment have taken a tough fight to this insurgency in Kandahar province. The price has been high: 94 coalition forces have been killed in 2006. The Canadians have suffered 28 deaths just in this year. Both Britain and the United States are fully committed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thus the call for help to Europe is urgent and not a matter of politics. Inside Canada the stakes are no less high. For some time, Canadian forces have trained for a full range of tasks from humanitarian assistance to all-out combat. Now that we are in the latter, will the political class in Ottawa lose its nerve?

France and Germany have some 2,000 and 1,000 troops respectively in the country, but have so far resisted calls to transfer them south to where the real fight is. The same is true for Italy’s 1,000 forces. Spain is glaringly absent. Turkish troops could fill the gaps around Kabul if some of the others moved to Kandahar and Helmand provinces.

This is a time when Europe has to show whether it can do more than merely criticize American policy. Diplomacy, stabilization and development have been Europe’s main tools in its foreign policy. These are no longer enough. France for one has proven combat forces and needs to take them off the fence.

Some Europeans have resisted the call for more effort in Afghanistan because of the simultaneous demand in Lebanon. It seems that some Europeans may be hedging their bets politically with the Arab and Islamic world at large, choosing rather to put static forces between Arabs and Israelis than fighting militant Islamists. The Lebanon force is a much hyped mission that may actually prove somewhat safer than it looks. As long as the government of Lebanon has no power to disarm Hezbollah and as long as the international community is not going to stop Iran and Syria from building up Hezbollah behind UN lines, these forces will not likely tackle Hezbollah too severely. In the case of a possible future Israeli-Hezbollah fight, they will have to scurry out of harms way.

European nations should not hide behind the situation in Lebanon; they need to
send troops to Afghanistan. At the same time, Canada should not abandon its efforts there. Thankfully, Prime Minister Harper has the backbone to stay the course, but his political power base is still weak as he presides over a minority government. NATO’s resolve will flounder sooner or later if European combat forces are persistently kept out of the hot fight. Given the porous border with Pakistan, defeating the Taliban will be difficult enough. Nobody wants to ponder the ramifications of NATO actually losing its fight in Afghanistan because countries did not want to risk their troops.