With a Taliban offensive looming the insignificant Irish contribution to the battle for democracy in Afghanistan is not good enough, writes Rory Miller.
Things are looking bad in Afghanistan. Flushed with profits from the opium trade and free to operate openly from its base in the Pakistani province of north Wazaristan, the Taliban is making a comeback.
Last year saw a doubling of roadside bombs, a fivefold increase in suicide bombings, and over 1,000 civilian deaths, making it the most violent year in the country since the conclusion of the military phase of Operation Enduring Freedom in December 2001.
No surprise then that the Taliban is widely expected to launch a major military offensive in the next few months, once the winter snows melt away. Even now some reports have Taliban operatives working in small units only 40km from the capital Kabul.
This has led to a renewed call by Afghan leaders, the US administration and senior soldiers on the ground, not to mention numerous think tanks and Afghan experts, for European states to match the US and provide more troops and aid so that the Taliban offensive can be withstood.
But you won't be seeing our own politicians getting into this debate over the coming months of electioneering. Though both the Government and Opposition parties have been open in their support for a "new beginning" for Afghanistan and have called for an "international effort" to assist the Afghan people "in establishing a broad-based and multi-ethnic government" there has been almost no willingness to make a practical contribution to this noble cause outside of allowing Shannon serve as a stopover for US aircraft and authorising seven members of the Irish Defence Forces to serve in a non-combat role in the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in 2002.
Even Irish financial support for reconstruction and stabilisation, which has been highlighted by the Government to show that Ireland is "a committed partner to Afghanistan", is less impressive than many assume.
For example, Irish officials have made much of the fact that we were one of five European countries that provided 25 per cent of total overseas development assistance to Afghanistan between 2001 and mid-2004. What they don't often mention is that of this impressive sum of €791 million Ireland only actually contributed €21 million compared to contributions of €383 million from the UK, €165 million from the Netherlands, €123 million from Sweden and €99 million from Denmark.
Since then Irish aid has been averaging about €5 million a year - completely insignificant in the face of the challenge the Afghan people continue to face. This is made all the worse by the fact that the Afghan operation, unlike that in Iraq, clearly has the support of the United Nations - a key criteria for Irish involvement in international affairs.
Since 2001, there have been eight UN Security Council Resolutions endorsing the military role of the coalition in Afghanistan. The first of these, UNSC Resolution 1386, was actually passed while Ireland was a member of the Security Council in late 2001.
The most recent, passed unanimously in October 2006, was categorical in its call upon UN member states to "contribute personnel, equipment and other resources" to the coalition forces operating in Afghanistan.
Nor is there much credibility in the argument that our constitutionally enshrined policy of military neutrality prevents us from a far greater involvement in the ongoing Nato-led ISAF mission which currently stands at 35,000 troops (there are many more, including 9,000 US troops, working outside of Nato control).
Apart from carrying out the key task of training the new Afghan army, which is set to double in size from 32,000 to over 70,000 by the end of 2008, countries both large and small have committed medical teams, naval patrol boats, air transportation units, and logistical, communications and engineering expertise. There is no reason why we could not draw on our peacekeeping experience across the world over the last five decades to contribute something similar.
As far back as 2002 it was reported that senior figures in the Irish military (including some who led a 2002 delegation to Afghanistan to assess the options for Irish involvement) were keen to join the coalition both as a way of helping the Afghans and as a way for the Army to develop its military skills in authentic conditions following the much reduced Irish commitment to UN operations in Lebanon.
But even if a greater military role (even in non-combat areas) is a non-starter then we could copy the Germans and help with the training of the Afghan police force. Or follow the Japanese, who have invested significant effort and spent over €100 million paying for the disarmament of 62,000 Afghan militiamen. At the very least, given our new-found wealth, there is no reason why we can't help with the purchase of some of the equipment the Afghan army needs to stave off the Taliban.
There is no doubt that Irish troops would face great peril in Afghanistan, even if committed in a non-combat role. It also goes without saying that there are very few votes in calling for our troops to be sent into a war-zone in the run-up to an election.
But unless countries like Ireland start pulling their weight, very soon large parts of Afghanistan could return to the dark ages of Taliban control. That would have a devastating impact on what has been achieved so far - including a democratically-elected parliament with 91 female law-makers; an increase in the number of children in school from 900,000 under the Taliban to five million now; and the return and resettlement of over four-and-a-half million refugees.
Moreover, addressing this issue may even lead to a much-needed debate on the larger issue of why, and for what purpose, our nation's military exists. If nothing else we might get an explanation from our politicians as to how they are able to reconcile their pledge to support democracy and the rule of law in Afghanistan with their pitiful contribution to this ambitious project up to this point.
Dr Rory Miller is a senior lecturer in Mediterranean Studies at King's College, London