NATO's Afghan troop plea snubbed

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BRUSSELS, Belgium -- NATO members have failed to respond to a call from military commanders for reinforcements to try to quell the Taliban insurgency in southern Afghanistan, an alliance spokesman said.

"No formal offers were made at the table," James Appathurai told reporters Wednesday in Brussels, where the 26-nation group was meeting.

NATO's top operational commander, U.S. General James Jones, appealed for 2,000 to 2,500 more troops last week, saying the force was about 15 percent short of full strength.

The Taliban have recently staged a resurgence following an initial routing of the Islamic militant group from its control of Afghanistan by a U.S.-led operation two months after the September 11, 2001, terrorists attacks in the United States. (Watch how the U.S. may have let 100 Taliban walk past their sights --1:53)

NATO commanders admit the level of resistance was more than they were expecting but Jones said the extra troops could help to defeat the Taliban in the region.

But on Wednesday, military commanders said their efforts to muster reinforcements for the 20,000-strong NATO force and greater air cover were likely to fail.

European allies, with thousands of troops already committed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, Bosnia, Congo and Lebanon are reluctant to send more to Kandahar and Helmand, where recent fighting has killed 30 NATO troops and hundreds of militants. (Watch why some NATO countries are reluctant to send troops -- 2:41)

The alliance said Wednesday that suicide bombings have killed 173 people -- mostly Afghan civilians -- in Afghanistan this year. (Full story)

"The signs are not particularly good for a rapid response," Lord Timothy Garden of London's Chatham House think tank, told The Associated Press.

"This has been going on in different theaters for years and years now, really since 1999 in Kosovo, and all our militaries are getting pretty threadbare."

"Nations are saying they are tapped out," one anonymous alliance diplomat told Reuters.

"Do not expect much today," said another NATO source.

Washington's ambassador to the alliance on Wednesday praised the U.S., Britain, Canada and the Netherlands for their combat efforts in Afghanistan, but urged other NATO members to send reinforcements.

"What we are looking to do is to put more forces in so that we can turn the tide faster," she told BBC radio. "The issue here ... is the fighting capability and the fighting willingness of all allies."

Prime Minister Tony Blair's spokesman dismissed any prospect of Britain, which already has 4,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, sending more troops.

"We have made our contribution and ... if you talk to NATO they recognize that," he told reporters.

Rice warning

The wrangling in Brussels came after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned on Tuesday the West was now paying the price for having left Afghanistan on its own after Soviet forces finally departed in the late 1980s. (Full story)

"The Soviet Union was defeated in Afghanistan. And then they left. And we left, too," Rice said in a news conference with Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay. Canada has 2,200 troops in Afghanistan and has lost 32 troops and one diplomat in Afghanistan since 2002.

"And when we left and we left the Afghan people without any means of support, without political support, economic support, security support, Afghanistan turned into a failed state that harbored and supported Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, and we all came to pay for that," she said.

Rice said she remembers being asked by members of the 9/11 commission why she and other officials didn't do anything about Afghanistan before the September 11, 2001, terror attacks against the United States.

"Well, we didn't. In fact, we left Afghanistan to its own devices," Rice said.

"If we should have learned anything, it is if you allow that kind of vacuum, if you allow a failed state in that strategic location, you're going to pay for it," she said.

Last week, a U.S. military official in Afghanistan said nine of 21 districts in Ghazni province -- only about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the Afghan capital of Kabul -- "have significant Taliban influence."

This development, which has caught the attention of the U.S. military in the past month, represents an important shift by the Taliban from their traditional strongholds in the south and east of the country. They had had little or no presence in Ghazni since the Taliban's fall in November 2001.

The official said the Taliban are moving around Ghazni province in units of 15 to 20 and will take over towns if no Afghan police units are around to stop them.

Rice acknowledged the sacrifice and hard work of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, and urged the world to think about the alternative.

There are currently about 20,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, in addition to the 20,000 international troops that make up the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is led by NATO.

"An Afghanistan that does not complete its democratic evolution and become a stable, terror-fighting state is going to come back to haunt us," she said. "It will come back to haunt our successors and their successors."

CNN's Peter Bergen contributed to this report.

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