STRASBOURG, France – President Obama on Friday opened his pitch to secure greater international assistance in Afghanistan, warning that Europe is still a target for terrorism.
“I understand that there’s doubt about this war in Europe,” Obama said at a town hall-style meeting here. But, “if there is another al Qaida attack, it is just as likely, if not more, that it will be here in Europe.”
Obama is in France and Germany this weekend attending NATO’s 60th anniversary meeting. At the top of the president’s agenda is a push for other countries to back his plan for redoubling efforts to secure Afghanistan.
“We have no interest in occupying Afghanistan,” Obama said. “But this is a mission that tests whether nations can come together in common purpose on behalf of our common security.”
Before leaving for a week in Europe and stops in Turkey, Obama announced a new strategy for Afghanistan that includes sending additional combat troops and assistance. At NATO, Obama hopes members of the 28-nation alliance will step up with funding, troops and other support.
Having left London and the G20 economic summit with a qualified success in securing international commitments on the global economy, Obama is shifting focus over the next several days to Afghanistan, and a push for an eradication of all the world’s nuclear weapons.
His arrival in France with first lady Michelle Obama drew enthusiastic, jostling crowds. A quick day-trip to Germany to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel also drew flag-waving supporters eager to see the new American president.
Charles A. Kupchan, senior fellow for Europe studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said it’s possible some NATO members may send more troops.
“I would not hold my breath on any substantial change,” Kupchan said. “The European publics by and large do not see the war in Afghanistan with the same urgency and priority that the American public and American government do.”
Obama’s Strasbourg town hall drew about 3,500 Europeans and Americans to a sports arena in this city on the French and German border.
The president warned the crowd that mutual hostility between the United States and Europe needs to change, and that both sides have allowed the alliance “to drift.”
“I know that there have been honest disagreements over policies, but we also know there is something more that has crept into our relationship,” Obama said. “In America, there’s a failure to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world, instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America’s showed arrogance.”
But added that in Europe “there is an anti-Americanism that is at once casual but can also be insidious.”
Obama on arrival in France participated in a ceremony and brief press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who announced an agreement to accept an inmate currently housed at Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.
It is likely France would accept the transfer of an Algerian detainee, which Sarkozy described as a show of support for Obama’s plans to close the facility. European leaders have consistently demanded the prison be shut down.
“Guantanamo was not in keeping with U.S. values, at least with my perception of what American values were and are,” Sarkozy said. “My deeply held belief is that you don’t combat terrorists with terrorist methods, you combat them with the methods and the weapons of democracy.”
