Political Leadership Is Lacking

NATO nations have yet to source all of their operation plans,General Craddock noted.We need to balance national and alliance issues.Political leadership in NATO is AWOL,absent without leave.That is why,to a great extent,this imbalance exists.We are in operations;NATO has had to accommodate national interests.The problem is generated when,over time,the accommodations layer over top of one another.We've got 70 caveats.The accommodations have created regional fiefdoms in Afghanistan.They won't do anything else when asked by ISAF,the International Security Assistance Force.Friction in NATO is of a different nature now that we have our forces in harm's way.We're under a 1999 strategic concept.This strategic concept has to find a balance between the level of ambition and political will.We're manned at about 82% in the command structure.We need to know how to engage with the Russian Federation.This alliance is challenged internally and externally.There have to be agonizing reappraisals.We've got to get this one better than we have,SACEUR insisted.