US wants more Nato troops for new Afghanistan surge

Michael Evans
London Times
Wednesday, November 11, 2009

President Obama is to ask members of Nato to provide up to 4,000 more troops to help to break the deadlock in Afghanistan.

Mr Obama is poised to confirm a surge of more than 30,000 US combat troops, according to senior military sources. He will also urge the rest of Nato to provide thousands of soldiers to train new recruits to the Afghan National Army (ANA).

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His appeal is set to be largely ignored, however. At present only two Nato members have offered more troops — Britain and Turkey — and no other country is expected to come up with any, according to alliance sources. Such a response would threaten the credibility of the alliance in Afghanistan and represent a considerable snub for Mr Obama, who was viewed as a welcome change after the administration of President Bush.

Nato military officials are to meet in Belgium on November 23 at a “force generation” conference in which each ally will be asked to contribute towards the expansion of the ANA, either by sending extra trainers or more money for the training programme.

Full story here.

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