NATO Troops to Iraq and Afghanistan
NATO foreign ministers pledged to speed the expansion of alliance peacekeeping in Afghanistan and boost military training for Iraq, but failed to come up immediately with the troops for both operations Thursday, December 9, 2004, at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels. Alliance officials expressed disappointment that ministers had not committed all the troops, planes and helicopters needed to extend the 8,000-strong Afghan peacekeeping force from its bases in Kabul and the north into the west of the country.