Word: nato
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...There are currently more than 110,000 foreign soldiers in Afghanistan, anchored by a 68,000-strong U.S. force. The other members of the 43-nation, NATO-led coalition provide some 42,000 troops. The Afghan army currently numbers about 94,000, but the government wants a force of 134,000 by October 2010, rising...
...spite of crumbling public support for the mission in Afghanistan, the U.S.'s NATO allies should be able to muster an extra 5,000 troops to join President Barack Obama's surge, officials at the alliance say. But this will still fall well short of the 10,000 troops Washington has been seeking. And it is likely to come with demands for a more robust strategy to build civil institutions, including benchmarks on stamping out fraud and corruption in the Afghan government...
...speech announcing a surge of 30,000 U.S. troops Tuesday, Obama's made it clear that he expects more help from his allies, insisting that extra NATO troops was a test of the alliance's credibility. In turn, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said he was confident 5,000 extra troops could be found. "This is not a U.S. mission alone: America's allies in NATO have shared the risks, costs and burdens of this mission from the beginning," said Rasmussen, who has traveled around Europe in recent weeks to drum up more military muscle. (See pictures of life...
...Some NATO officials, though, say that even getting to 5,000 extra troops could be hopeful. That number may include troops that were already deployed as reinforcements for Afghanistan's presidential elections last August. And many NATO countries, struggling with a deeply skeptical public, have already indicated they want to scale back their military involvement in Afghanistan...
...French President Nicolas Sarkozy welcomed Obama's speech, calling it "courageous." But Sarkozy has already pledged that he "won't send an additional soldier" to bolster the nearly 3,750-strong French contingent. (NATO officials hope he may send more military or police trainers...