Nato summit: Obama on protests: 'that's what America is about' - Monday 21 May

. The President has said that NATO defends the right to protest to collect . Summit

hands dealing with Afghan forces conducting combat mission in 2013 . Obama talks with President of Pakistan, without formal "meeting"

. Protesters gather outside the offices of Boeing, the campaign headquarters for Obama

10.15 AND

Hello and welcome to our live blog coverage of the second day of NATO summit in Chicago and anti -NATO protests in the streets. Tom McCarthy here in New York, my colleagues and Ewen MacAskill Gabbatt Adam are in Chicago. A summary of the latest news:

President Obama refused to meet with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari

to discuss the reopening of supply routes through the border with Pakistan for NATO forces in Afghanistan. Both parties would agree, but the tensions that have lasted more than 1 November 2011 NATO attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and a disagreement on the rates of the border have so far prevented.

Dozens of demonstrators were arrested and others injured in clashes with police outside the summit

. Thousands of demonstrators marched through downtown Chicago on Sunday to protest against military action and called for an end to the war in Afghanistan, among other objectives.

Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai made a joint appearance in the media that Obama praised the cooperation of the War of Karzai

. "I am grateful for the hard work that President Karzai has done," Obama said. "It recognizes the enormous sacrifices made by American troops." U.S. combat troops remain in Afghanistan until 2014 and pledged his support for the Afghan security forces for ten years after.

10:35:

Chicago.

My Kind of Town

aa

better picture of yesterday's protests NATO: # flickr.com/photos/sterno7 ~ ~ ~ ~ HEAD = HEAD = NNS NNS ...

- Adrian Chen (@ AdrianChen) May 21, 2012

11:07 pm:

With debt service engulfs a growing U.S. budget

the expenses unnecessary war

> is under fire in Congress.

by an amendment to the bill proposed defense authorization that passed the House last week, the Pentagon is required to calculate and publish the costs of war in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya . The amendment was drafted by Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia).

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney attacked Obama on war spending in an article by Ed on Saturday, the Chicago Tribune. Romney did not accuse Obama of running deficits with ill-conceived wars, but (cc: GWB).

Romney accused Obama of threatening global stability by not investing enough in the war:

While the military underinvestment is a longstanding problem of NATO, the lack of U.S. leadership on this issue is alarming again. Instead of working to strengthen NATO, the Obama administration has taken steps that undermine the alliance.

Last year, President Obama signed into law a budget plan that threatens to charge the U.S. militarywith about U.S. $ 1 billion in cuts over the next 10 years. ... General Martin Dempsey, head of the Joint Chiefs of the United States, said that this reduction simply means "no longer a world power."

defense spending seems to be a budget line that is exempt from the ongoing conference of Republican deficits (unless, of course, the Republican in question is Dr. Ron Paul).

We took a look at defense spending in the relationship between the member countries of NATO yesterday. The United States spends more than France, a member of NATO rank second in terms of military budget, 10-1.

11:18:

Much of yesterday's demonstration in opposition to the NATO summit came peacefully, but

the police clashed with demonstrators

late afternoon along the barricades to prevent the demonstrators from approaching the summit site.

Adam The Guardian Gabbatt video is recorded in the protest crowd as they ran into a wall of peacekeeping officers with other clubs. Front and center is a white-haired protester appears to be a septuagenarian, ish.

"the old woman back!" shouts someone (: 40)

"She wants to be at the front". is the answer.

11:44: Among the many

shocking images

that came out of the protests in Chicago Sunday, features a symbolic force:
U.S. Veterans flatbad

on a truck, addressing the crowd, explaining why they were giving back the medal and decorations he had received during their tours of duty.

Nonato # # # AnonymousVeterans Ochi (which included Scott Olsen), to give their war medals again twitter.com / Ghostpickles / s ...

- Anonymous (@ Ghostpickles) May 21, 2012

The best-known veterans to speak was Scott Olsen on Sunday, Iraq veteran, who was seriously injured during a demonstration Occupy Oakland last October. "Basically, [the medals] are examples intended to make us feel good or reward for their participation in the struggle for the 1%, pushing the total population, and sending our world into a downward spiral" said my colleague Adam Olsen Gabbatt. "It does not make sense to me."

The ceremony recalled a scene from the Vietnam years, when disenchanted veterans gathered in Washington, DC, in April 1971 and laid the war medals on Capitol Hill. Future presidential candidate John Kerry controversy to return his medals from Vietnam.

. Warning: This video contains much more vigorous stick-to-say-that-man-curse and messy hair

24:15:

Heck of a sequence of pictures of

police and demonstrators fought Chicago Tribune. Get ready for the final.

(h / t: @ mccaner)

24:16:.

Then there are the

protest against the risks of NATO NATO give the impression that NATO is doing things.

- Matt Yglesias (@ mattyglesias) May 21, 2012

24:31:

protest is underway in March

of Union Park in Chicago Is the head office of Boeing, the aircraft manufacturer and defense contractor.

The March is broadcast live on @ occupymusician:

What do we want? Peace. When do we want? Yesterday. Get up, down, no revolution in this city.

24:40:

Our

Adam Gabbatt covers

aa demonstration outside the headquarters of Boeing

in Chicago. From what we saw in the live video stream of the event, protesters claim to be victims of aerial bombardments.

About 30-40 people in the street outside the NATO Boeing # # hq Nonato twitter.com / AdamGabbatt / st ...

- Adam Gabbatt (@ AdamGabbatt) May 21, 2012

"There is something of an" after the mayors see "feel to the proceedings," says Adam. "Even favorite songs like" We're unstoppable, another world is possible "not to turn more of a response from the crowd. Many people here have had a long day yesterday. "

1:43 p.m.: Adam Gabbatt

earler spoke with aa protest organizer Andy Thayer , which welcomed the veterans of the Iraq war has users Sunday the police and sentenced for what he called violent tactics. Thayer says that estimates of the crowd yesterday was as high as 20,000 +.

Listen to the interview:

1:51 p.m.:

security features NATO members have reached formal agreement for

hand over Afghanistan to Afghan security forces next summer, in preparation for the withdrawal of U.S. troops late 2014, reports the New York Times.

"Our forces broke the Taliban's momentum," Obama said of the meeting. "Most Afghans are reclaiming their communities. Afghan security forces have become stronger."

mesh

The agreement with previous plans established by the coalition forces. As expected, the new French president, Francois Hollande, announced it was accelerating the withdrawal of his country in the coalition force in Afghanistan. French troops leave the country later this year, he said.

2:02 p.m.:

aa Ewen MacAskill
The Guardian reports on a meeting with the

British Prime Minister

during the NATO summit. Mutual love abounded:

, David Cameron, during a press conference at the NATO Summit, described as "frustrating" the Pakistani president's refusal to reopen the supply route between Pakistan and Afghanistan, was closed in November to protest against drone attacks and a U.S. air strike that killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers.

as "frustrating" hardly covers the extent of anger in the Obama administration with Zardari. Obama had hoped to come to the NATO summit agreement. Instead, Cameron said he would not agree today.

Cameron took a question from my colleague guardian, Patrick Wintour, saying he was asked the last question before going for a photo with all the other NATO leaders because of his "deep and abiding love of the great British institution." He said it was ironic. Patrick, in response to Cameron, said the feeling was mutual. He was also the irony.

2:39 p.m.: center

aa protest activity

happens now HQ Obama campaign.

The #

Nonato March approximates the Obama headquarters today. Road is blocked by the police, however, for people that collect in the street, twitter.com / AdamGabbatt / st ...

- Adam Gabbatt (@ AdamGabbatt) May 21, 2012

• 3:22 p.m.:
• CNN reports that

Obama "talked" with Pakistani President

Asif Ali Zardari, but the two do not have a meeting.

Both parties are motivated to pursue a meeting. It would raise the stature of Mr. Zardari have a meeting face-to-head with the President of the United States, although many of his constituents do not have a particular affection for him or the United States. Zardari wants to reach an agreement with the benefit of United States Pakistan United States pay as much as $ 5,000 or more per truck crossing the border to supply the NATO troops in Afghanistan. Zardari also as a kind of diplomatic trophy at home as a justification to travel all the way to Chicago.

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