Bush: NATO must do more in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush said Thursday that NATO allies need to supply more soldiers to Afghanistan and be willing to send them into the most violent battles with Taliban fighters, who are gearing up for a new spring offensive.
"When our commanders on the ground say to our respective countries we need additional help, our NATO countries must provide it," Bush said.
Flush with money from heroin-producing poppy crops, Taliban fighters have proved much tougher than NATO expected when it deployed its first contingent of peacekeepers there in 2003.
"I've ordered an increase in U.S. forces in Afghanistan," Bush said in a speech that comes five years after U.S.-led forces toppled Afghanistan's repressive Taliban regime.
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