President Obama on Saturday came up short on efforts to secure more combat troops for Afghanistan, but touted “concrete commitments” of support from NATO leaders.
President Obama is in Prague today, more than halfway through his first overseas trip as president. His schedule for Sunday includes:» A welcome ceremony at Prague Castle» Bilateral meetings with Czech Republic leaders» A major speech calling for global nuclear disarmament» Attendance at a U.S. – European Union summit
» Meetings with leaders of Spain and Poland» A visit with former Czech President Vaclav Havel» Evening departure to Ankara, Turkey
“We came here expecting consensus and we are gratified to receive that consensus,” Obama told reporters as the NATO conference closed. “This was not a pledging conference, and yet we already received the kind of commitments that historically you don’t see.”
The White House said NATO agreed to send up to 5,000 troops to safeguard upcoming elections in Afghanistan, plus NATO training teams to help build up the Afghan army. NATO members also stepped up with more funding and other resources, according to the administration.
But the 27 others leaders here for the alliance’s 60th anniversary proved unwilling to satisfy Obama’s wish for additional combat forces — leaving the United States largely isolated as it steps up military actions in Afghanistan.
Before he left for a week in Europe and Turkey, Obama announced a new strategy for Afghanistan that includes additional U.S. combat troops and civilian assistance. He came to France hoping to persuade other nations to join him.
But his efforts were brought up short in large part by difficulties other leaders face in justifying a commitment of more resources to Afghanistan when their own economies are in serious turmoil.
Although NATO members supported the initial invasion of Afghanistan, support for the long-simmering conflict has waned in Europe.
Obama, who sought to put an upbeat spin on his NATO achievements, bristled at suggestions that his visit was less than a success, saying he is aware of the pressures other leaders face back home.
“The one thing that I would say to the German people is the same thing that I’ve said to the American people, which is I understand that after a long campaign in Afghanistan, people can feel weary of war, even a war that is just,” Obama said. “And so I understand why both Americans and Germans would be feeling a sense, particularly in the midst of economic crisis, of ‘why are we still there.’”
Charles A. Kupchan, senior fellow for European studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said it wasn’t likely Obama would be able to translate his considerable popularity abroad into a troop commitment from NATO.
“Despite the outpouring of enthusiasm for his arrival in the White House, it hasn’t led to the concrete support for the American effort in Afghanistan that many had hoped for,” Kupchan said.
A day earlier, the president warned that Europe remains at serious risk from a terrorist attack, urging NATO members to support his efforts to route out the Taliban and al Qaida in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Obama’s NATO compromise came on the heels of a similarly mixed success at the G20 economic summit of world leaders in London, where he joined in a broad agreement for economic cooperation and regulation, but failed to persuade other nations to support an international stimulus package.
Outside of the summit in Strasbourg, a picturesque city on the border with Germany, security closed off many streets as violent demonstrators lit fires and clashed with police.
The president later the same evening was heading to Prague in the Czech Republic, where he is to deliver a speech on Sunday calling for eradication of the world’s nuclear weapons.
