[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 11425-11426]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1530
 GRAVE SHORTFALLS IN NATO'S INTERNATIONAL SECURITY ASSISTANCE FORCE IN 
                              AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Franks of Arizona). Under a previous 
order of the House, the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Bereuter) is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BEREUTER. Mr. Speaker, this Member rises to inform our colleagues 
about grave shortfalls in NATO's International Security Assistance 
Force, ISAF, in Afghanistan and about efforts to ensure the mission has 
the resources needed for success.
  This Member returned to Washington yesterday from Bratislava, 
Slovakia, where the spring session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly 
was held. This Member serves as the President of the Assembly, which 
for the last 50 years has served as the parliamentary adviser and 
support organization for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or 
NATO.
  The inability of the Alliance to meet its commitments in Afghanistan 
was the most important issue we discussed in Bratislava. This Member 
cannot overstate how critical the next few weeks will be for the future 
of Afghanistan and for the credibility of NATO.
  Several members of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly visited 
Afghanistan on behalf of the Assembly 2 weeks ago. They were unanimous 
in their praise for the professionalism of our soldiers but were 
equally convinced that, without additional resources, the Alliance 
faces failure in Afghanistan and risks losing all that it has currently 
invested.
  The problems, as noted by those members, relate to the unwillingness 
of Alliance member countries to provide the personnel and the key air 
assets required to deploy additional provincial

[[Page 11426]]

reconstruction teams, or PRTs, to provide security beyond Kabul and the 
surrounding environs.
  In addition, the allies must provide ISAF with the extra forces 
needed to give the forthcoming elections the best chance of success. 
This is a matter of great urgency. If our allies do not commit more 
forces and the support assets to sustain them in the next 4 to 6 weeks, 
the September elections in Afghanistan will likely do little more than 
to legitimatize the warlords and drug traffickers who are increasingly 
controlling much of the country.
  In Bratislava, Alliance legislators urged our respective governments 
to examine carefully what further assets they can individually commit. 
We recognize, of course, that many NATO countries, like our own, 
already deploy substantial numbers of forces in Afghanistan and 
elsewhere. The United States currently has about 13,500 military 
personnel in and around Afghanistan, most in conjunction with Operation 
Enduring Freedom, the separate mission to fight the Taliban and al 
Qaeda in southeastern Afghan. Germany and Canada are the two largest 
contributors to ISAF, with about 1,800 troops each. But Canada's year-
long commitment ends in August, and its forces must be replaced from 
elsewhere.
  Compared with the total resources the Alliance can call on, the 
numbers needed now are not great. Their likely impact, however, is 
crucial. Time is not on our side. Excuses will not suffice. We must 
secure those assets now. To fail to do so will place in jeopardy all we 
have achieved thus far in improving stability in this crucial region.
  Actually, this is a failure of political will, pure and simple. Make 
no mistake about it, this is a failure that jeopardizes the success of 
our mission in Afghanistan and jeopardizes the very credibility of the 
Alliance.
  We often say that failure is not an option. Mr. Speaker, in 
Afghanistan, failure is a distinct possibility. And unless allied 
leaders in the next few weeks demonstrate the political will to deploy 
the necessary assets in Afghanistan, failure gradually will become a 
reality.
  Drastic shortfalls exist despite the fact there are more than 2 
million military personnel in the active and reserve forces of the 
European NATO allies. Less than 2 percent of those forces are deployed 
in missions in the Balkans and Afghanistan.
  Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the Secretary General of NATO, has stated 
repeatedly that the credibility of the Alliance is at stake in 
Afghanistan and so, it should be emphasized, is the future of the 
Afghan people.
  Recognizing this reality, the leaders of all 26 NATO allies' 
parliamentary delegations to the Parliamentary Assembly, in an 
extraordinary, unprecedented step, authorized this Member to send a 
letter to all the heads of government of the NATO countries 
forthrightly expressing the concerns of the Assembly.
  That letter strongly urges governments to provide the necessary 
resources for the NATO missions in Afghanistan and the fervent hope 
that effective action can be taken quickly and the necessary forces 
provided.
  In addition, we agreed to raise this concern in our respective 
national legislatures in order to generate the widest possible 
parliamentary support for the required resources to be made available.
  NATO already has made remarkable progress in Afghanistan and, with a 
little more effort, our goal of bringing peace and stability to that 
troubled country is achievable.

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