Allies Spurn Obama's Troop Request

It appears the continent still doesn’t quite trust the new guy: The Times of London reports that NATO leaders have almost uniformly rejected President Obama’s request that they send more troops to Afghanistan. The only countries to oblige it are Britain, of course, which the Guardian reports will commit up to 1,000 troops, as well as Belgium and Spain, which offered 35 and 12 military trainers respectively. Nicolas Sarkozy, who is hosting the NATO meeting, refused Obama’s request, while Germany, Italy, Poland, Canada, and Denmark are still mulling it over. The Times writes “The derisory response threatened to tarnish Mr. Obama’s European tour, which yesterday included a spellbinding performance in Strasbourg in which he offered the world a vision of a future free of nuclear weapons.”