WaPo - Hillary Clinton Secures NATO Pledge of 7,000 Troops For Afgan Mission

[TomCADem]

The one thing that is clear that President Obama and Hillary Clinton have been pretty effective on the diplomatic front.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/04/AR2009120400621.html

BRUSSELS -- NATO allies welcomed President Obama's new Afghanistan strategy Friday, as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton received pledges of 7,000 extra troops to back up the U.S. escalation.

Twenty-five countries have announced that they will deploy additional troops next year, and more contributions are expected "during the coming weeks and months," said NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

However, officials were still trying to nail down some of the promises.

In addition, U.S. diplomats have some heavy lifting ahead, with Germany and France uncertain about increasing their forces. In addition, the U.S. government hopes to dissuade two other major contributors -- Canada and the Netherlands -- from their plans to pull out within two years.

Friday's meetings marked a sort of roadshow for Obama's new Afghanistan strategy, which was announced Tuesday and features the deployment of 30,000 additional U.S. troops to fight the Taliban and train Afghan security forces. Clinton and Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, briefed the 44 NATO and non-NATO countries involved in providing security in Afghanistan.

[jillan]

1. Great job Hillary. If we are going to do this, it's about time we get help from other countries.

[avaistheone1]

2. Big fucking deal.

Are we supposed to be impressed?

The European Union alone has more than 400,000 people and a GDP of $16 Trillion dollars...and all they can send between them and the rest of the NATO countries is 7,000 more troops!! Well the Afganistan escalation is not a priority for them.

What a joke.