Nato urges end of right to opt out of Afghanistan combat

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2473486,00.html

Germany, France, Spain and Italy will come under pressure this week to surrender the “red cards” that allow them to keep their troops away from the most dangerous areas of operations in Afghanistan.

The issue of national caveats, under which Nato governments can opt out of certain operations when they choose, is expected to dominate the alliance heads of government summit, in the Latvian capital, Riga, which starts tomorrow.

Some senior diplomats and military officials say that the credibility of the alliance in its most important mission overseas is at stake. About 90 per cent of the casualties suffered by troops serving with Nato’s International Security Assistance Force have involved just four countries: the US, Britain, Canada and the Netherlands.

An American soldier and 55 insurgents were killed over the weekend in a clash with Taleban fighters in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan.

[David__77]

1. NATO must withdraw.

That is the solution to the immoral occupation.