Obama: US Afghan plan must have 'exit strategy'

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29 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President Barack Obama said the United States must have an "exit strategy" in Afghanistan even as it expands its military, diplomatic and economic efforts against a Taliban insurgency.

"So what we're looking for is a comprehensive strategy," Obama said in an interview aired Sunday on CBS television's 60 Minutes show. "And there's got to be an exit strategy."

"There's got to be a sense that this is not a perpetual drift," he said.


Obama narrowly defined the US mission in Afghanistan as: "Making sure Al-Qaeda cannot attack the US homeland and US interests and our allies. That's the number one priority."

"And in service of that priority there may be a whole host of things that we need to do," he said. "We may need to build up economic capacity in Afghanistan. We may need to improve our diplomatic efforts in Pakistan."

"We may need to bring a more regional diplomatic approach to bear. We may need to coordinate more effectively with our allies. But we can't lose sight of what our central mission is," he said.

He said the mission was the same as when the United States went into Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 attacks, adding that projecting violence against US citizens "is something that we cannot tolerate."

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[backscatter712]

1. Excellent point!

We can't just expect to keep indiscriminately blowing things up, and blowing people up, and occupying territory with troops - it doesn't work in Afghanistan.

The mission should be relatively short, should be focused on destroying Al Qaeda, using economics and diplomacy for building political forces that keep Al Qaeda smacked down without us having to keep our military over there, and have a definite end so we can bring our troops home and spend war money on other things.

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2. good points

. . . conflicting goals, though.

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3. .