The White House has long since preferred to avoid the embarrassment of mentioning bin Laden. It hardly ever does, concentrating instead on its perceived success in bringing democracy to Afghanistan.

Even so, bin Laden remains at least the symbolic target of Operation Enduring Freedom, and its derivative Combined Task Force Bayonet, as they relentlessly scour mountain and valley for the remnants of his al-Qaida terrorist organization and the Taliban. The planned switch from U.S. forces to NATO troops in the region is likely to alter those imperatives.

Under the current plan, NATO forces are scheduled to take over security operations in Afghanistan next year, replacing American forces. Washington would like this pullout to come sooner rather than later so as to have more reserves for troop rotation in Iraq, and U.S. officials are badgering America's 25 alliance partners to speed up deployment.

At present there are around 17,000 U.S. front-line forces on Afghan territory, mostly involved in Enduring Freedom. By December, Atlantic alliance strategists hope to have pumped up the NATO strength of about 10,000 to twice that level to fill the expected void left by soon-to-depart U.S. forces.

A Washington military source said Wednesday some U.S. troops will remain to keep the anti-terrorist flame burning, presumably under the NATO command. But the question is how will the hunt for bin Laden fit into NATO's mission in Afghanistan?

Canadian Army Brig.-Gen. Mike Ward recently quoted Ottawa's Defense Minister Anne McLellan as saying Canada's NATO forces "expect our involvement (in Afghanistan) to endure for several years."

But Ward said NATO's priority was "essentially protective for Afghans in their centers of population, although (NATO) recognizes that if we're going to keep the Taliban and al-Qaida and the other anti-coalition militias at arm's length from Afghani officials and protect them from murder and assassination that's ongoing ...we have to engage in combat operations that take the offensive into the mountains, into the remote regions where they have their bases and their sanctuaries and keep them off guard."

While this does not exclude mountain search-and-destroy operations, it doesn't seem to include the search for bin Laden as pre-eminent in the military mission. Driving the point home is the fact that Ward was speaking at a lengthy briefing to Canadian correspondents in Ottawa and bin Laden wasn't mentioned by name once.

The Atlantic Alliance first appeared on the scene as ISAF, the International Security and Assistance Force, which has made Kabul, the Afghan capital, relatively safe. In July, Italian and Spanish troops moved into Herat in the west. But large stretches of the rest of this mountainous land remain under the control of warlords and ethnic militias, particularly in the south, where British troops are now deployed.

Meanwhile, a large part of Canada's 1,300-strong contingent is in the process of taking over the large huge, dusty U.S. base that sprawls across the southern plain at Kandahar, a short helicopter flight away from the caves that perforate the mountains along the Pakistani border.

European governments have been willing to deploy troops in Afghanistan to balance their refusal to support the Bush administration militarily in Iraq. The cynical view is that it eases their consciences, and shows that the "Eurowimp" label is not justified. The U.S. decision to go after bin Laden in Afghanistan in the wake of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on Sept 11, 2001, is less politically charged domestically than the attack on Iraq.

Thus Berlin, a strong supporter of the Afghan conflict, announced Wednesday the German Bundestag had voted overwhelmingly to increase Germany's contingent in Kabul and northern Afghanistan from 2,250 soldiers to 3,000. Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who last April withdrew all Spanish troops from Iraq, has also announced plans to send more troops to the rugged Asian country.

Afghan troops have joined U.S. and allied forces in the manhunt for al-Qaida and Taliban fighters along the Afghan-Pakistani border, and Pakistani units police their side of the very porous 1,500-mile border. Western officials say the most effective way to secure the border against militant infiltration would be for Afghan and Pakistani forces to carry out joint operations: it's widely believed that Islamist sympathizers in the Pakistani intelligence service help bin Laden to stay one step ahead of his pursuers.

A Pakistani newspaper reported this week that Islamist religious schools harbor al-Qaida terrorists and Taliban militants. On the Afghan side of the divide, there is evidence that mountain tribes also provide shelter for them.

A Western diplomat in Washington who was recently in the area said, "When it comes to bin Laden a lot of people on both sides of the border have their eyes wide shut."

But the current tension between Kabul and Islamabad rules out any form of military cooperation. President Hamid Karzai has complained that Pakistan is responsible for Afghanistan's problems with Taliban insurgents, a charge that Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf denies.

This week, President Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, visited both capitals to urge both men to put aside their differences and cooperate in "greater information sharing, greater intelligence sharing coordination of activities on both sides of the border,, and a better dialog to ensure that we have a common understanding of the problem."

But the other impediment to joint Afghan-Pakistani counter-insurgency action is the slow progress in building up Afghanistan's from-the-ground-up armed forces and police despite the intensive training program shared by the United States and NATO countries.

By contrast, building up the Iraqi armed forces is moving with the speed of light. By September, the Afghan army has grown to about 20,000 troops and the police to 50,000 (in Iraq the figure is 87,000 troops and 104,000 police).

Related Links
SpaceDaily
Search SpaceDaily
Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express