At the NATO meeting in Strasbourg, President Obama made a failed plea for more troops for Afghanistan. NATO leaders agreed to send a small number of temporary, non-combat troops, but little else.
ASIDE: The number even of those varied curiously, from several hundred (the London Times), to five thousand (CNN). The Washington Post called it 3,000, and the New York Times called it “up to 5,000”.
The UK was the only one to offer substantial help (at least in the London Times’s telling). Once again, the US-UK alliance seems to be the only one capable of accomplishing anything. Two thoughts occur:
First, Operation Iraqi Freedom was derided as illegitimate because it consisted largely of the US and UK (and Spain, Australia, Poland, Denmark, and the Kurds). Will President Obama’s campaign to stabilize Afghanistan be similarly seen as illegitimate? (I hope not. Consistency can be overrated.)
Second, how stupid is it to drop the special relationship with Britain, as some seem determined to do? I’m not aware that the White House has even repudiated the statement.
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