Gates to press NATO allies on Afghanistan

[unhappycamper]

Gates to press NATO allies on Afghanistan
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Feb 5, 2008 18:15:27 EST

Convincing balky NATO members to send more fighting troops to back up the U.S. and its allies doing the fighting in still-shaky Afghanistan tops the priority list of Defense Secretary Robert Gates as he heads to alliance meetings this week in Lithuania and Germany.

Gates will leave to make that case immediately after spending all of Wednesday trying to convince the House and Senate armed services committees to take action on the Pentagon’s request for $102.5 billion dollars to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for the last half of fiscal 2008, as well as the $515.4 baseline defense budget for fiscal 2009 and enough to fund the wars a comfortable distance into a new administration.

Gates’ first stop is Vilnius, Lithuania, where he will attend an informal meeting of the 26 NATO defense ministers. Over the weekend, he will take part in the 44th annual Munich Conference on Security Policy, a meeting of 250 delegates from 50 nations who will discuss the international commitment to pacifying and rebuilding Afghanistan and whether NATO has the resources to fulfill its commitment, among other topics.

Gates will stress that success in Afghanistan, vexed by a resurgent Taliban, a record opium crop and significant developmental shortfalls, “is essential, not just to our security here, but Europe’s as well,” Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said Tuesday.

That could make for some awkward moments. For months, NATO commanders have said they need 7,500 more troops to bolster the 42,000-member International Security Assistance Force. Gates, concerned that a continued shortfall could undermine the seven-year U.S. and allied effort to stabilize Afghanistan, recently convinced President Bush to dispatch 3,200 Marines there this spring.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02/military_gates_nato_0205w/