NATO to meet on Afghanistan, missile defense

[laststeamtrain]

Source: AP

NATO to meet on Afghanistan, missile defense

By VANESSA GERA and SLOBODAN LEKIC (AP) – 18 minutes ago

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — NATO defense ministers will meet here Thursday to discuss the war in Afghanistan and the growing support for President Barack Obama's plans for a new missile defense system in Europe.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the informal two-day meeting of defense ministers from the 28 NATO member countries will focus mainly on the 8-year-old war in Afghanistan. A runoff presidential election is set there for Nov. 7, and Obama is considering whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, where the Taliban insurgency has been making strides.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expected to brief allies in Bratislava about progress in a review of recommendations by American Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan. McChrystal has called for more troops, and Fogh Rasmussen has said he hopes NATO members can endorse that recommendation.

<snip>

The meeting in Bratislava comes as U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visits Central Europe, with stops in Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic. He is discussing the new U.S. missile defense plan and reassuring the strongly pro-American countries that Washington still supports them, even though it scrapped the Bush-era missile defense plan for sites in Poland and the Czech Republic. Russia strongly opposed Bush's plan and has welcomed Obama's shift away from it, creating some nervousness in Warsaw and Prague.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ik6l0ISFcirreBe5rLS3Migs5bVgD9BFKP700

[Crowman1979]

1. I have two solutions!

Leave Afghanistan and scrap the missile defense.