
European leaders were quick to offer verbal support on Wednesday to Obama's Afghanistan strategy, which includes sending 30,000 more U.S. troops to join the fight against a Taliban insurgency.
But they have been in less of a hurry to commit new forces to an uncertain military campaign that is increasingly unpopular at home because of rising casualties.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Wednesday he expected U.S. allies to provide at least 5,000 extra troops and possibly a few thousand more -- short of the 10,000 troops and trainers Pentagon officials had sought....