Obama Ready for Pep Talk on Afghanistan During NATO Summit
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U.S. Marine Corps/Lance Cpl. Dexter S. Saulisbury(NEW YORK) — President Obama will take center stage at the NATO summit in Chicago Sunday by urging the alliance to resist deescalating its commitment in Afghanistan.
With the American public having grown weary of the 10-year conflict, leaders from other nations have also seen diminishing support for the war.
For instance, new French President Francois Hollande was elected partly on his promise to pull his forces out of Afghanistan faster than the planned 2014 timetable for withdrawal.
In two years, virtually all coalition forces will have exited the country, 13 years after the U.S.-led effort to destroy al Qaeda training camps and depose the Taliban regime in response to the 9/11 attacks.
While the meeting is expected to be cordial, Obama will likely get hit with hard questions from NATO members on how fast the pullout of military forces will be, how many troops to leave behind and how the financial burden of upkeeping Afghan national forces will be shared.
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