Obama calls on allies to do more

BADEN-BADEN, Germany | President Obama on Friday used his massive popularity in Europe to speak bluntly to the continent, condemning what he called “insidious” anti-Americanism and calling on allies to do more to fight the war in Afghanistan and boost its military muscle.

Addressing thousands of young French and Germans at a campaign-style town hall event in the French border city of Strasbourg, Mr. Obama took on cultural misperceptions on both sides of the Atlantic.

In Europe, he said, “there is an anti-Americanism that is at once casual but can also be insidious. Instead of recognizing the good that America so often does in the world, there have been times where Europeans choose to blame America for much of what’s bad,” he said.

But Mr. Obama also reached out to his hosts, condemning “dismissive, even derisive” U.S. attitudes toward Europe’s “leading role in the world” - not mentioning that many Europeans thought his predecessor, President George W. Bush, embodied those attitudes.

The large crowd in Strasbourg, which cheered wildly upon Mr. Obama’s entrance, was quiet during the portions of his talk when he challenged deeply held European biases.

The president, battling a persistent head cold in the middle of his weeklong European tour, also tried to win over his European audience by talking up his administration’s plans - popular here - to eliminate nuclear weapons, close the Guantanamo Bay prison, end torture and tackle global warming.

But in one sign of lingering policy differences, Mr. Obama and other NATO leaders were unable to agree on a new chief as a two-day alliance summit began. Turkey is balking at the leading candidate, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, because of his role in the global controversy in 2006 over Danish political cartoons seen as offensive to Muslims.

“We don’t have consensus yet,” NATO spokesman James Appathurai said at a news briefing. “The discussion will continue tomorrow.”

The town hall event was the highlight of a day when Mr. Obama also met in the morning in Strasbourg with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a harsh critic of U.S. policies ahead of the just-concluded London G-20 summit, and in the afternoon with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the quaint German town of Baden-Baden. A dinner with the heads of state of the NATO alliance wrapped up the day.

Mr. Obama’s mix of frank talk and rhetorical olive branches produced at least one breakthrough: Mr. Sarkozy praised Mr. Obama’s decision to close Guantanamo and said France was ready to accept some detainees from the prison in Cuba.

“Guantanamo was not in keeping with U.S. values,” Mr. Sarkozy said in a joint briefing with Mr. Obama. “You don’t combat terrorists with terrorist methods.”

He said France might accept some detainees that U.S. officials deem a danger but cannot try in a court of law.

“We can’t condemn the United States to have this camp and then simply wash our hands of the whole business when they close it down. That’s not what being an ally, a friend, means,” Mr. Sarkozy said.

The NATO dinner was expected to focus primarily on Afghanistan, with the United States pushing its allies to contribute “more civilian and military support” after Mr. Obama in recent weeks ordered 21,000 more U.S. troops to the war.

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