Clinton to seek more troops from NATO

A day before Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton travels to Brussels, Belgium, to meet with NATO ministers, few countries offered fresh troops. Even as NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said allies will contribute more than 5,000 more troops to Afghanistan, French President Nicolas Sarkozy stopped short of offering more soldiers. Germany said troop increases will not be discussed until after a London conference in late January. Of the major European continental powers in Afghanistan, only Poland indicated a solid willingness to send more troops. It said it will likely send 600 troops to beef up its force of 2,000.

President Obama's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan looks at first like a defeat for Vice President Joe Biden, who pushed for holding down the number of U.S. troops in the country. But the plan also gives Biden a lasting victory: a strategy that lays out far more modest goals for the embattled nation. Biden sought, and ultimately got, a narrowed mission that shifted the focus of U.S. efforts away from fostering representative democracy. Now the focus is on reversing the Taliban's momentum and transferring responsibility for security to Afghan forces as quickly as possible. NEWS SERVICES