The Other Key Audience for Obama's Afghan Address

(Nov. 24) -- When President Barack Obama informs the nation next week of his long-awaited plan for Afghanistan, he probably will take into account an even wider audience: the allied countries Washington is counting on to bolster any growing U.S. deployment.

"One of the things I'm going to be discussing is the obligations of our international partners in this process," Obama said during a brief appearance before reporters Tuesday.

Obama is expected to deliver his speech on Dec. 1. It's no coincidence that two days later, NATO foreign ministers will convene in Brussels for a series of meetings that includes discussion of new troop contributions for Afghanistan. Earlier this month, the alliance delayed a periodic reconsideration of troop and resource commitments to the Afghan mission until after the Obama administration had reached its own conclusions.

NATO and its partners have about 45,000 troops in Afghanistan, on top of the roughly 68,000 U.S. troops there, which just isn't enough, according to the revised strategy and troop requests from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. It has been widely reported that McChrystal is seeking an additional 40,000 U.S. troops. Just as widely reported is skepticism from many in Congress and some factions in the administration about the costs of the deployment and the wisdom of raising the ante on a historically hellish battlefield in a country with problems across the spectrum of governance.

With some kind of compromise in the works, the administration will need its partners to make up the difference. "Clearly, if the president decides to commit additional forces to Afghanistan, there would be an expectation that our allies would also commit additional forces," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told a news conference Tuesday.

The Obama administration doesn't have the luxury of forging ahead with a coalition of the willing. After six years of fragmented international cooperation and discord over the war in Iraq, there aren't a lot of willing partners out there.

Obama has basked in the good will of crowds around the world and found common cause with allied leaders on issues that range from climate change to Iran's nuclear program. But none of those issues involves the deployment of French or Dutch or Polish men and women to what is arguably the world's hottest battlefield, something governments became less and less willing to offer during the Bush years. To commit their own people to Afghanistan, allied leaders will have to sell the worthiness of such a move to their own constituencies.

And they will probably be looking to Obama's address next week for the convincing arguments they themselves will have to make.