Bush to NATO: War Takes Time

As the train that is the Bush administration begins to slow, the president has attended his last ever NATO summit. Speaking to alliance leaders Wednesday, Bush asked for patience and resolve to “finish the fight” in Afghanistan, a war now in its seventh year.

The New York Times:

President Bush opened a meeting of NATO leaders here [in Bucharest, Romania] on Wednesday by urging the alliance to “maintain its resolve and finish the fight” in Afghanistan and to strengthen its military forces to combat Al Qaeda and other threats around the world.

With the war in Afghanistan in its seventh year, Mr. Bush used a speech and a news conference to urge NATO nations to deploy still more troops than the 47,000 there now, even as he acknowledged it was politically and militarily difficult for some of the alliance’s 26 nations to do so.

“We expect our NATO allies to shoulder the burden necessary to succeed,” he said, appearing with Romania’s president, Traian Basescu, at a retreat beside the Black Sea.

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Agence France-Presse

Anti-Bush and anti-NATO protesters in Kiev, Ukraine, pass a signboard showing President Bush. The president visited Ukraine on Monday before his final NATO summit.