Then here's an idea, ASSHOLE!
How about they PULL ALL THEIR TROOPS and the U.S. can FIGHT THIS ONE ITSELF!!!!
How about that, SHITTER?!!!!!!!!!!
"Gates's criticism roils NATO allies; Warns troops are not trained on insurgency, Says no nation singled out" by Molly Moore and Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post | January 17, 2008
PARIS - Some of the United States' closest NATO allies expressed anger and astonishment yesterday at published statements by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates describing their forces as poorly trained for fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Gates made his comments, reported in the Los Angeles Times yesterday, the day after the Pentagon announced it would send about 3,200 Marines to Afghanistan because NATO allies had not contributed more troops.
The main forces fighting Taliban efforts to regroup in southern Afghanistan include some of Washington's staunchest allies - Canada, Britain, and the Netherlands.
Eimert van Middlekoop, Dutch defense minister, whose government recently extended its commitment in Afghanistan for an additional two years despite increasing public opposition, summoned the US ambassador to explain Gates's criticism.
"This is not the Robert Gates we have come to know," Van Middlekoop told the Dutch broadcasting agency NOS. "It's also not the manner in which you treat each other when you have to cooperate with each other in the south of Afghanistan."
In Britain, Conservative Party lawmaker Patrick Mercer called the remarks "outrageous," the Associated Press reported.
Sean McCormack, State Department spokesman, confirmed that the Dutch minister had summoned the ambassador, but he denied that the meeting had been "one of these sort of finger-wagging sessions and that it got emotional."
Geoff Morrell, Pentagon press secretary, said: "The secretary is not backing off his fundamental criticism that NATO needs to do a better job in training for counterinsurgency. But he is not - nor has he ever - criticized any particular nation for their service in Afghanistan."
"The article was wrong in suggesting that he criticized individual countries," Morrell said of Gates. "In fact, he has routinely praised the Canadians, the Brits, the Dutch, and the Australians who are in the fight in southern Afghanistan. He appreciates their service. He's sympathetic for the losses they have suffered."
Morrell said Gates believes that NATO must train its troops better to deal with insurgents conducting asymmetric attacks and that, in particular, NATO training teams in Afghanistan must have such skills in order to properly teach and mentor Afghan security forces.
Gates telephoned the Canadian defense minister, Peter MacKay, yesterday to explain what he had said. MacKay later told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that Gates had expressed only strong praise for Canada's role.
In the Los Angeles Times interview, Gates said, "I'm worried we have some military forces that don't know how to do counterinsurgency operations."
"Most of the European forces, NATO forces, are not trained in counterinsurgency; they were trained for the Fulda Gap," Gates said, a reference to the German region where a Soviet invasion of Western Europe was considered most likely during the Cold War.
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer defended his troops, telling reporters at alliance headquarters, "All the countries that are in the south do an excellent job."
Dutch, Canadian, British, Australian, and US special forces are conducting most of the military operations in southern Afghanistan, long the Taliban's stronghold. Rugged Uruzgan Province, where many of the allied troops are based, is the home territory of the Taliban's leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar.
The parliaments of the European countries with troops in the south had approved the deployments on the assumption that their forces would be involved primarily in nation-building projects to help Afghanistan recover from war. Instead, they have encountered some of the toughest combat in the Afghan theater.
Italy, Germany, and many other allies refuse to allow their troops to be deployed in the treacherous southern region.
So that is who he was griping about, huh?
NATO officials said they were particularly galled by Gates saying: "Our guys in the east are doing a terrific job. They've got the [counterinsurgency] thing down pat. But I think our allies over there, this is not something they have any experience with."
"Our troops, men and women, are well prepared for the mission," Colonel Nico Geerts, the Dutch field commander in Uruzgan Province, said, according to the Associated Press. "Everyone in the south, the British, the Canadians, the Romanians, and our other allies, are working hard here. . . . I wouldn't know what the secretary of defense of America is basing this on."
I would tell the U.S. SecDef to FUCK OFF if I were you, sir!
See why I don't like reading AmeriKa's MSM papers, readers?
Three articles in, and I'm already cursing and swearing.
(Author with mouth agape, shaking his head in disbelief)
