AFGHANISTAN - WILL THE REST OF EUROPE STEP UP?

WHILST the rest of Europe ponders the possibility of getting off its backside
and helping out with the NATO affort in Afghanistan it's worth having a look at the sacrifices that have already been made.

Sadly another bloody milestone is approaching our own forces in Helmand Province and neighbouring Kandahar as the next British military fatality will be the 100th our forces have suffered there this year.

With the announcement of another 30,000 US troops heading to the Afghan front many senior military figures are waiting to see exactly what the rest of Europe is going to do about it- the death toll below shows clearly who is making the biggest sacrifice.

That's right - if you look at the size of each country and the number of troops it is losing on the front line, the biggest sacrifice is being made by America and Britain.

The lack of contribution by the rest of Europe may well have a direct link to the number of deaths and injuries suffered by our troops.

USA: 857*
UK: 236
Canada: 132*
Germany: 40
France: 36
Denmark: 30
Spain: 26
Italy: 22
Netherlands: 21
Poland: 15
Australia: 11
Romania: 11
Estonia: 6
Norway: 5
Czech Republic: 3
Latvia: 3
Hungary: 2
Portugal: 2
South Korea: 2
Sweden: 2
Turkey: 2
Belgium: 1
Finland: 1
Lithuania: 1

During the first five years of the war, the vast majority of coalition deaths were American, but between 2006 and 2009, a significant proportion were from the UK and and Canada.

This is because they were assigned responsibility for the flashpoint provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, respectively.

This year has without doubt been the deadliest year for foreign military troops since the U.S. invasion in 2001, continuing the trend that has occurred every year since 2003.

In 2008, there were 3,276 improvised explosive device (IED) attacks in Afghanistan, a 45% increase over 2007, and a record for the war.

In the first two months of 2009, attacks with IEDs had killed 36 foreign troops, triple the number for the same period in 2008. In July 2009, there were 828 IED incidents in the country, the highest level of any month since the start of the war, 108 of the bombs were effective attacks. 49 foreign soldiers died in the bomb attacks that month.

Source: mirror.co.uk/