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U.S. confronts NATO realities in Afghan aid push

EDINBURGH, Scotland - Shifting tactics, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday that the Bush administration has decided to tone down its appeals to NATO allies for more troops and other aid in the fight against the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

After two days of talks with his counterparts from Britain, Canada and five other NATO countries whose troops are doing the bulk of the fighting in Afghanistan's violent south, Gates said he would continue making the case for greater allied military assistance. But he said he would be doing it differently, keeping in mind the "political realities" faced by some European governments whose people may see less reason to intervene in Afghanistan.

"We're going to try to look at this more creatively than perhaps we have done in the past when we basically have just been hammering on (allied governments) to provide more," Gates said.

He said there would be "brainstorming" for ideas on how to enable some NATO allies to contribute more. He cited, as an example, the possibility that an ally that has helicopters but insufficient resources to outfit them for the harsh environment of Afghanistan might get the money from another NATO country to upgrade the aircraft.

Gates has been pressing for months to get 16 more helicopters into southern Afghanistan to relieve a U.S. helicopter unit that will be leaving soon.

He also has pressed to fill other needs, including 3,500 NATO trainers for the Afghan police as well as a minimum of three battalions of ground troops.

He said that those gaps were discussed in Edinburgh but that the countries represented were not asked to contribute more, since they already are bearing the brunt of the military load, along with the United States.

[Last modified December 15, 2007, 02:07:10]