Europe's fairy tales.(Germany and United States help for Afghanistan postware reconstruction)

Europeans insisted that the problem with the recent liberation of Iraq was that it was not "multilateral" enough. A "big tent" operation like Afghanistan, they say, is how wars should be conducted. In reality, they need to find a new story.

Recently returned from a trip to Afghanistan, AEI researchers Tom Donnelly and Vance Serchuk note that European nations that committed to freeing Afghanistan as part of a "multilateral coalition" have been assigned important tasks in rebuilding the country. Yet they simply haven't done their job. Two critical examples are Germany and Italy.

It was Germany's job to create an Afghan police force. And they will graduate 8,000 Afghan police officers from their new police academy--but not until 2008. Until then, an Afghan policeman is anyone with an AK-47 and a police patch stitched onto his jacket. The significance of Germany's contribution is further called into question by a recent deal whereby Germany handed off the actual training of Afghanistan's police officers to the U.S., eventhough Germany will retain its title as primary coordinator.

Italy has similarly failed ...