[canada] minister says europe has the cushy job in afghanistan

Canada's Defence Minister, Gordon O'Connor, said Sunday that those NATO countries with troops deployed in relatively stable parts of Afghanistan — including Germany, France, Spain and Italy — must lift the restrictions that prevent their soldiers from taking on the more dangerous tasks being shouldered by Canadians. It's a problem that one former Canadian military leader says threatens the future of the 57-year-old North Atlantic Treaty Organization — an alliance founded on the principle that an attack against one of its members is an attack against all. Some of the large European countries with troops in the safer northern and western regions will not allow their soldiers to move into the danger zones when they are needed, even on a temporary basis. And some are not permitted to fight at night. I always thought the Canadians were a little too open-hearted and naïve - they actually go to fight, rather than to say they have a 'presence' there.