million fewer troops than europe, it can deploy twice as many. take a look at the war in afghanistan which you'll remember is a nato operation. isaf, the nato group responsible for conducting the war says as of the beginning of february, the u.s. supplied 47,000 of the 86,000 troops in country. the u.s. is left picking up all of the slack from its partners in europe. now, european countries do not need to instantly become war fighting great powers. that's not needed, probably not desirable. been there, done that. but surely europe can puting to 100,000 to 150,000 troops trained and deployable for actual fighting in war zones. if not, europe's leaders must content themselves with merely issuing press releases and holding academic conferences on go politics as their slide to global ir relevance will continue. we'll be right back.