This may be a story that only Matthew Yglesias and I care about. But check out this video that NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen put on his, uh, blog ahead of the Bratislava defense ministerial this week. It amounts to public pressure on Obama to back McChrystal. “It is my ambition that we will support the overall approach set out by Gen. McChrystal,” says the former Danish PM. “Because I believe it is the right long-term solution for Afghanistan, and because it is a significant contribution to our own security to prevent Afghanistan for once again becoming a safe-haven for terrorists. We should not assume that the Taliban will not harbor al-Qaeda and other extreme elements if left alone.”


It’s my understanding that the thinking in NATO capitols is that — real talk — whatever utility to European security it offers, Afghanistan is most important because America thinks it’s important. Accordingly, European leaders have tried in their public remarks not to say anything that the Obama strategy review might ultimately obviate. And then, by contrast, here’s Rasmussen making his views public.

What effect will this have? I don’t know. The traditional arrangement in place is that NATO’s military commander is always an American and its civilian leader is always a European. It’s never been a job with juice, as it can’t command NATO member-states to do anything. So it’s not clear that Rasmussen can do much more than just saying he thinks McChrystal is right and Europe should stick with him. Indeed, there’ve only been a handful of media stories that have even focused on Rasmussen. So he may be at the limit of his reach.

But still, right? Is there a precedent for this? I’m straining to think of one. Javier Solana was European Union foreign-policy chief, a position with significantly less institutional incentive to placate the U.S. than the NATO S-G does. (Solana was NATO secretary general in the 90s.) And even though Solana doesn’t substantively agree with anything the Bush administration did, his criticism was rather muted. If I’m forgetting something, please remind me, but it looks like Rasmussen has decided to pressure Obama, regardless of the traditional role of the S-G.