via rodeodance: Netherlands calls in US ambassador after criticism from Gates

Originally posted by rodeodance in LBN: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3142907



Waiting for the Canadian response...waiting...waiting....

Will Harper do the same?

Of course, this might be a setup, to let Harper and the Netherlands leader show how "independent" they are of the U.S.

U.S. critique of Afghan allies wasn't aimed at Canada: MacKay

U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates wasn't talking about Canada when he verbally attacked the skills of the allied troops working in southern Afghanistan, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Wednesday.

MacKay said Gates called him Wednesday to explain that the comments he made in the Los Angeles Times were meant to be a general reflection on NATO's shortfalls when it comes to battling insurgents.

"His comments were certainly not directed at Canada,'" MacKay told reporters in Ottawa, recounting the conversation he'd had with Gates five minutes earlier.

"He said, 'I specifically made no reference to any country and Canada is the last country I'd make those comments about.'"

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/01/16/gates-comments.html

Gates' spokesman Geoff Morrell did not challenge the accuracy of the quotes in the story, but said he thought it left the wrong impression.

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/294617

Just the NATO countries that are in southern Afghanistan, which would be Canada, Netherlands and Britain.

The American Defence Secretary thinks his NATO allies fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan might not be up to the task.

Robert Gates has criticized the NATO forces serving in southern Afghanistan, saying the soldiers stationed there do not know how to fight a guerilla insurgency. Yesterday, the U-S military announced it will be sending an additional thirty-two hundred troops to Afghanistan, in order to make up for what it describes as NATO's shortfall.

Geoff Morrell is a spokesman for the U-S Department of Defence, and he is at the Pentagon.

http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/latestshow.html

http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/asithappens/20080116-aih-2.wmv

Starts at 0:50 into the part.

After more than six years into an unnecessary war.
After six years in not winning the war.

One must assume that the head of NATO is incompetent.

This is a quote from a 1942 publication by the US Government, advising American GIs on how to behave when overseas, and working with Allied troops (and civilians). Too bad Secretary Gates doesn't seem to have taken that into consideration.

It's one thing for him to go around implying that the Canadian public (me, for example) are being unsupportive -- after all, there are so many of us in this country who do not approve of his and Bush's leadership of "The War on Terror", that he can consider himself outnumbered. (So understandably he might lose his temper and lash out in frustration!)

But disrespecting Canadian soldiers who are working very hard and risking their lives, is uncalled-for. I may not agree with this war, but I sympathize with the troops (some of whom I know). And it's unfair of him to blame them for his errors.