Bush Presses For More Help In Afghanistan

NASHVILLE, TENN. — President Bush said yesterday that North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies must "make the hard decisions" necessary to secure peace in Afghanistan and promised to press for increased contributions of troops and money next month to battle a resurgent Taliban and Al Qaeda. Mr. Bush also cited political and security progress in Iraq, as he portrayed the two wars as part of a mission to defeat terrorism that will be passed on to his successors.

Speaking at Opryland, Mr. Bush said that since an American troop build-up in Iraq last year, "sectarian killings are down, Al Qaeda has been driven from many strongholds it once held. I strongly believe the surge is working and so do the Iraqis." As the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion approaches next week, Mr. Bush fervently described the twinned elements of his foreign policy in a speech to the annual convention of the National Religious Broadcasters.

He presented them as a fight of good against an evil equal to the genocidal campaigns of World War II and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, declaring freedom, "God's gift to all humanity."

"We undertake this work because we believe that every human being bears the image of our Maker," Mr. Bush said. "That's why we're doing this."