Bridging the Gap on Afghanistan
Day 75
April 4, 2009
"We need to understand Afghanistan is a test case for all of us."
—Angela Merkel, German Chancellor, on NATO's committing 5,000 troops to Afghanistan at President Barack Obama's request
The President appears to get mostly what he wants out of the NATO summit in France Saturday as the organization agrees to send thousands of military personnel to help step up the campaign to stabilize the country before elections in August. Obama seems pleased with the results, telling reporters, "We've started to match real resources to achieve our goals."
Only a day earlier, in a presser with Merkel at the Rathaus in Baden-Baden, Germany, Obama had said he had no plans for Saturday's summit: "I don't come bearing any grand designs."