The US general commanding NATO forces in Afghanistan warned the government on that he needs thousands of more troops in place and also accused Russia of seeking to prop up the Taliban. It has been 16 years now since the US-led forces have been fighting in Afghanistan making it one of the longest ever wars that America has been fighting. General John Nicholson told Congress: "I believe we're in a stalemate." The question of whether to double down in the seemingly endless conflict will now become one of the first major military strategy questions of President Donald Trump's term as this war has already drawn out very long and seen the change of presidents too. it is no easy task to fight a war for 16 years considering the number of people who have been dead, injured or the expenses that have incurred over all this time and even now, after sending so many people to the war zone, NATO is still facing shortage of troops in Afghanistan has the situation does not seem to be in control.

NATO and Its Role in the Afghan War:

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is also called the North Atlantic Alliance which is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949. The organization constitutes a system of collective defense and all its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party. Three NATO members are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and are officially nuclear-weapon states that include the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. The headquarters of NATO are located in Haren, Brussels, and Belgium and it is where the Supreme Allied Commander also holds the office.

Belgium is one of the 28 member states across North America and Europe, while Albania and Croatia were the latest to join in 2009. There are also additional 22 countries that take part and actively participate in NATO's Partnership for Peace program, with 15 other countries involved in institutionalized dialogue programs. It is interesting to know that the combined military spending of all NATO members constitutes over 70% of the global total and the defense budget of the members spending on their defense budget is supposed to be 2% of their GDP.

The afghan war actually started as a one sided and it all began when USA began the quest to capture Osama bin Laden, who was accused of September 11, 2001, attacks on Twin Towers in New York. USA was supported by some NATO countries including the United Kingdom and Australia, as well as other allies when it began its invasion of Afghanistan under Operation Enduring Freedom.  With a high death toll and destruction all over, USA was furious and wanted to capture and punish Osama bin Laden who was said to be the mastermind behind all the problems that results from the attack and left so many people dead and jobless.

The main aim behind the Afghanistan war was to dismantle al-Qaeda and to deny it a safe base of operations in Afghanistan by removing the Taliban from power. What began as a winning fight soon turned a long drawn one because Taliban and al-Qaeda proved to be tougher than they were estimated and they put up a furious resistance which is still not coming to an end. Even though when President Barack Obama announced that U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan would end in December 2014, he cleared that a residual force of 9,800 troops would remain in the country, training Afghan security forces and supporting counterterrorism operations against remnants of al-Qaeda but now it seems that these troops are not enough to handle the situation in Afghanistan as we hear news about blasts and skirmishes going on between the forces and the militants.

NATO is facing storage of troops because it is only these men who are capable of strengthening the bilateral relationship in areas such as security, counterterrorism cooperation, and economic development and will play a key role in bringing stability to that part of the world.  While president trump has not come up with any details on his strategy for Afghanistan, yet during his campaign, he has accepted that US troops would remain there in order to deal with anything that required their assistance. At present, the NATO alliance has 13,300 troops in Afghanistan and about half of them are American who are assisting a much larger Afghan force in a war against the Taliban and other Islamist militants. According to the Defense Secretary James Mattis, the president will listen to the advice of the generals on Nicholson's request for reinforcements and hat conversation has yet to happen.

When he testified before the US senate armed services committee, Nicholson said he has a "shortfall of a few thousand" troops needed to train, advise and assist Afghan government forces as USA is taking the task of helping the afghan government very seriously and aims to put things right before pulling out. According to him, having more US as well as NATO troops in place would help him to train and advise Afghan units down to a brigade level and in ministries in Kabul. He further said that he was in process of discussing the request for reinforcements with his own chain of command and that Mattis would talk to the NATO allies.

There have been problems in the past too as men working out in the field require much more than the weapons to save their lives. NATO has been working untiringly and sending its troops to Afghanistan to help keep peace but there are times when they require more manpower as well as help from the outside world to cope with things. Nicholson is looking forward to get more troops so that it can cut down any encouragement that Russia is giving the Taliban so that it will not be able to undermine American influence and to defeat NATO. It is only with additional troops and supports that NATO and USA will be able to overcome problems and establish peace in the region.

Albert Barkley is a social critic and working with a dissertation writing service provider firm. He loves to look at the changing social trends closely and criticize accordingly. He is an English Literature lecturer. However, due to his interest in writing and sharing thoughts with others, he writes articles for different blogs.