Gates Opens Talks with NATO Allies.

EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) — Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday began two days of talks with allied defense and diplomatic officials on how to re-energize and reinforce NATO efforts in southern Afghanistan, where the radical Taliban insurgency has managed to increase its attacks in recent months.

In a new assessment published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Wednesday, analyst Julianne Smith cautioned that the situation in Afghanistan is growing increasingly unstable.

"Afghanistan is heading in the wrong direction, and short of a complete overhaul of NATO strategy, it threatens to take its people, the future of the alliance and trans-Atlantic relations along with it."

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