Afghanistan - Should we send 500 Troups?

I’ve just done some interesting calculations looking at our near neighbours and their troop contributions to the NATO-led ISAF operation in Afghanistan.

I have only taken those countries that have send 1,000 or more troops, and then compared this with that nation’s total population. I’ve also done an average of these, and put a line in for those above/below the average.

As you can see, even without sending another 500 troops the UK already has the largest force in relation to population. Increasing our force to 9,500 puts our ratio even higher at 156. This will be 50% more than even the current USA commitment.

Politicians, including our Prime Minister, are extremely reluctant to name names. Even this week when annoucing the sending of the extra 500, Our Gordon in nebulous terms, insisted that Nato countries must bear their “fair share” of the mission by sending more troops of their own. He didn’t give any indication though of which countries he thought were not providing their fair share at the moment. If he cares to look at the above chart, it will give him a fair indication!

This entry was posted on 16/10/2009 at 04:51 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.