Hunter: NATO slacking off in Afghanistan

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jan 11, 2008

A key Republican is complaining that more U.S. troops are being sent to Afghanistan simply because NATO allies are shirking their commitments.

In a Jan. 11 letter to the defense ministers of NATO nations, Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee and one of the trailing pack of candidates running for the presidential nomination, threatens to reduce or prevent NATO allies from competing for U.S. defense contracts if they don’t do better in Afghanistan.

“In the eyes of Congress, it is unacceptable that the United States must continue to dig deeper into its military force when some of our NATO allies are unwilling to fulfill or make robust commitments to the international effort in Afghanistan,â€