News story here.

Experts say NATO is hindered in its fight against the Taliban by so-called "caveats," restrictions placed by various NATO- member countries on what their forces can do and where they can be located in Afghanistan.

Robert Hunter was U.S. ambassador to NATO during the Clinton administration.

"There are only about four or five countries that say we will go anywhere and do whatever fighting we have to do: the Americans, the British, the Canadians - who have suffered more casualties than anytime since the Korean War - the Dutch and the Estonians. The rest all have some limitations," said Hunter.

This is putting it mildly. The Canadians in particular have been doing a spectacular job, at a cost of many lives. Same for Australia (which isn't mentioned in the above paragraph), the British, and the Dutch (A Dutch Afghanistan update here.)

As for the rest of the nations, this is an important illustration of how things work when you actually have a war that is "approved" by the U.N. and the world. Guess what: The U.S. and a few nations still end up carrying most of the load, and probably always will. Not enough troops in Afghanistan? We know where we can find some more. Tell those other nations to put down the sandwiches and drinks and get the hell off the sidelines.