The High price of Friendship

ACCORDING to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the United States has engaged in more multinational operations since the end of the cold war than it did in the preceding 90 years. Relying on one’s partners to fight wars makes sense. After all, it is better to fight with your friends at your side than alone, right?

Wrong.
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This partnership has come at a price. At President Bush’s request, in May 2005 Congress created a $200 million Coalition Solidarity Fund that supports coalition partners in Afghanistan and Iraq. For example, Estonia received $2.5 million in Coalition Solidarity Fund money to support its troops — about 40 in Iraq and 80 in Afghanistan. Albania, with its 120 or so troops in Iraq and 35 or so in Afghanistan, received $6 million, as did the Czech Republic, which has roughly 100 troops in Iraq and 60 in Afghanistan. (The Czechs are expected to withdraw their troops from Iraq by the end of the year while sending approximately 100 new troops to Afghanistan.)
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Yes, wartime situations are fluid and troop deployments are not the sum total of partners’ contributions. But a new standard shouldn’t be hard to discern: the United States should use coalition warfare when it reduces the costs of prosecuting war, not when it greatly increases them. If a coalition is to serve any function other than augmenting one’s war-fighting capacity, we should think twice before forming it. (NYT Op-Ed byPatricia Weitsman)