NATO ask for EU help in Afghanistan.

In a wonderful example of wishful thinking, NATO has asked the European Union to make a greater contribution to the civilian reconstruction of Afghanistan. According to the Washington Post the request was made after a meeting with the UN, the World Bank and the EU.

"Particularly the EU has a great opportunity to make a significant and very timely difference in the area of the judiciary and the police," NATO's top civilian representative in Afghanistan, Ambassador Daan Everts, told a news conference.

"The goal is wide open. They just have to kick the ball," he said...

...there was an acute need to train and equip judges and police and to build administrative capacity -- areas of EU expertise.

The EU is more likely to kick the ball in its own net, so the best NATO can hope for is funding. The last thing Afghanistan needs in the imposition of EU-style administration from an organisation which is a textbook example of an over-staffed dysfunctional bureaucracy, in which fraud and corruption are out of control. Moreover, it is becoming clear that European police forces cannot control Islamic extremists in their own backyards, but it might be fun to see them trying to police the Taliban, on their own turf.

Update 3.11.06 @13:30

There is now more details of the meeting on the NATO website, including an audio file (with so much reverb it could have recorded underwater) and a transcript of the press conference, and also video interviews with Everts and a World Bank official.

Tags: Afghanistan, European Union, NATO.