The official line of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) command in Afghanistan, is that the war against Afghan insurgents is vital to the security of all the countries providing troops there.
In fact, however, NATO was given a central role in Afghanistan because of the influence of United States officials concerned with the alliance, according to a US military officer who was in a position to observe the decision-making process.
"NATO's role in Afghanistan is more about NATO than it is about Afghanistan," the officer, who insisted on anonymity because of the political sensitivity of the subject, told Inter Press Service in an interview.
The alliance would never have been given such a prominent role in Afghanistan but for the fact that the George W Bush administration wanted no significant US military role there that could interfere with their plans to take control of Iraq.
When the Bush administration sought to merge the US and NATO commands in Afghanistan, key allies pushed back, arguing the two commands had different missions. The French, meanwhile, were convinced the Bush administration was using NATO troops to fill the gap left by shifting US troops from Afghanistan to Iraq - a war they strongly opposed.
