NATO talks tough, suffers losses

NATO issued strong statements against Russia's action in Georgia on Tuesday, demanding that Russia withdraw and saying that they were "seriously considering" the implications of the conflict. As far as action though, all NATO did was to suspend future operations with Russia and set up a NATO-Georgia council. While that might look like the first step in making Georgia a member of NATO (something the United States is pushing for even more since the start of the conflict), a NATO-Ukraine council has been meeting for more than a decade and Ukraine is nowhere near becoming a NATO member. Several NATO members (particularly Germany) want questions of territory (Abkhazia and South Ossetia) settled before granting Georgia NATO membership, the conflict hasn’t changed their minds, at least not yet.

Meanwhile actions in Afghanistan show that NATO will have a hard time backing up any future threats of military action. Ten French peacekeepers (serving under NATO command) were killed in a daylong battle with Taliban insurgents, with 21 additional French soldiers injured in the fighting. To make matters worse, the French troops were members of their country’s parachute corps (usually paratroopers are some of the best trained troops in a nation’s military) and there are reports that some were killed by friendly fire when an air strike (carried out by US aircraft) was called in. The battle is the latest chapter in NATO's failing mission in Afghanistan, where Taliban insurgents are pushing ever closer to Kabul, Afghanistan's capital city.

The question is if NATO can't defeat a rag-tag group like the Taliban, how can they expect to take on a modern, well-equipped army like Russia's? The conflict in Georgia suggests that Russia already knows the answer to that one.