In NATO we trust
September 23, 2010 / Bruce Stokes
European Voice
Afghanistan is an increasingly divisive issue in transatlantic relations. Americans are more optimistic than Europeans about the outcome of the nearly nine year-old war. And they are more willing to stay the course.
For some time defence analysts have worried that European disenchantment with the Afghan war might undermine support for NATO and for its future out-of-area operations. Moreover, Americans have fretted that the ever-louder clamour in Europe to reduce or withdraw troops from Afghanistan reflected a deeper European aversion to military action that prefigured an inevitable alliance rift over how tough to be with Tehran about its nuclear ambitions.



