Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Wall Street Journal
April 5, 2008
Pg. 5
By John D. McKinnon
The U.S. plans to send more troops to Afghanistan next year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday following President Bush's promise to other North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders to increase troop levels.
While Mr. Gates didn't say just how many more troops the U.S. would add to its current count of about 31,000, the number is believed to be several thousand at most. Mr. Gates spoke with reporters aboard a flight to Oman following the NATO summit in Bucharest.
As the summit wrapped up, Russian President Vladimir Putin softened his opposition to a U.S.-led plan to build a missile shield in Europe, urging NATO leaders at the meeting, "Let's be friends, guys."
His mostly positive comments after this week's contentious NATO summit suggested an amicable meeting over the weekend with President Bush at Mr. Putin's Black Sea vacation house.
Still, at an unscheduled news conference in Bucharest, Mr. Putin repeated his opposition to further NATO expansion along Russia's western border. Meaningful U.S.-Russia agreements over the weekend on the missile shield and other points of contention remained uncertain.
Mr. Putin's comments came as he made his first appearance at the NATO summit. The Cold War-era security organization has undergone considerable changes since the collapse of the Soviet Union, including even establishing a new cooperative council with Russia in 2002, in part at Mr. Putin's urging.
A U.S.-backed effort to bring more former Soviet satellites into NATO has made Russian leaders increasingly nervous, while Russia's immense new oil wealth also has emboldened them. In February 2007, Mr. Putin warned in a bluntly worded speech that NATO's continued expansion threatened to upset the European balance of power. He was particularly worried about a plan to put two former Soviet republics, Ukraine and Georgia, on a path to NATO membership.
NATO leaders put that plan on hold Thursday in a setback for Mr. Bush and a notable diplomatic victory for Mr. Putin, who had urged Western European leaders to resist the plan. But after that success, the Russian president, who leaves office next month, appeared to want to use his Friday appearances to burnish his legacy as a statesman.
On Friday morning, he met in a closed-door session with the NATO-Russia Council leaders, including Mr. Bush, and thanked the NATO allies for their help in areas where progress has been made. "I thought it was a very classy way to end his comments," a senior Bush administration official said.
For his part, Mr. Bush -- who referred to himself and Mr. Putin during the meeting as "two old warhorses" -- reiterated his contention that "the Cold War is over and Russia is not the enemy," the administration official said. The Bush administration argues that Russia is better off with stable, secure democracies on its borders.
Mr. Bush "acknowledged that we have more work to do to convince the Russian people that NATO is not a threat, but is a tool to deal with the challenges of the 21st century, challenges that face the U.S., Europe and Russia," the official added.
Mr. Putin later suggested at his news conference that the U.S. has made progress in reducing Russian worries over the missile shield. It is "positive that they have heard our concerns," the Russian leader said.
But he repeated his worries over the advancing NATO presence around Russia. "The emergence of the powerful military bloc at our borders will be seen as a direct threat to Russia's security," he warned.
April 5, 2008
Pg. 5
By John D. McKinnon
The U.S. plans to send more troops to Afghanistan next year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday following President Bush's promise to other North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders to increase troop levels.
While Mr. Gates didn't say just how many more troops the U.S. would add to its current count of about 31,000, the number is believed to be several thousand at most. Mr. Gates spoke with reporters aboard a flight to Oman following the NATO summit in Bucharest.
As the summit wrapped up, Russian President Vladimir Putin softened his opposition to a U.S.-led plan to build a missile shield in Europe, urging NATO leaders at the meeting, "Let's be friends, guys."
His mostly positive comments after this week's contentious NATO summit suggested an amicable meeting over the weekend with President Bush at Mr. Putin's Black Sea vacation house.
Still, at an unscheduled news conference in Bucharest, Mr. Putin repeated his opposition to further NATO expansion along Russia's western border. Meaningful U.S.-Russia agreements over the weekend on the missile shield and other points of contention remained uncertain.
Mr. Putin's comments came as he made his first appearance at the NATO summit. The Cold War-era security organization has undergone considerable changes since the collapse of the Soviet Union, including even establishing a new cooperative council with Russia in 2002, in part at Mr. Putin's urging.
A U.S.-backed effort to bring more former Soviet satellites into NATO has made Russian leaders increasingly nervous, while Russia's immense new oil wealth also has emboldened them. In February 2007, Mr. Putin warned in a bluntly worded speech that NATO's continued expansion threatened to upset the European balance of power. He was particularly worried about a plan to put two former Soviet republics, Ukraine and Georgia, on a path to NATO membership.
NATO leaders put that plan on hold Thursday in a setback for Mr. Bush and a notable diplomatic victory for Mr. Putin, who had urged Western European leaders to resist the plan. But after that success, the Russian president, who leaves office next month, appeared to want to use his Friday appearances to burnish his legacy as a statesman.
On Friday morning, he met in a closed-door session with the NATO-Russia Council leaders, including Mr. Bush, and thanked the NATO allies for their help in areas where progress has been made. "I thought it was a very classy way to end his comments," a senior Bush administration official said.
For his part, Mr. Bush -- who referred to himself and Mr. Putin during the meeting as "two old warhorses" -- reiterated his contention that "the Cold War is over and Russia is not the enemy," the administration official said. The Bush administration argues that Russia is better off with stable, secure democracies on its borders.
Mr. Bush "acknowledged that we have more work to do to convince the Russian people that NATO is not a threat, but is a tool to deal with the challenges of the 21st century, challenges that face the U.S., Europe and Russia," the official added.
Mr. Putin later suggested at his news conference that the U.S. has made progress in reducing Russian worries over the missile shield. It is "positive that they have heard our concerns," the Russian leader said.
But he repeated his worries over the advancing NATO presence around Russia. "The emergence of the powerful military bloc at our borders will be seen as a direct threat to Russia's security," he warned.