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Obama insists on Afghan exit strategy as US briefs NATO on new line
President Obama said last night that he wanted a clear "exit strategy" from Afghanistan for the United States military as he prepares to pour an extra 17,000 troops into the country.
The influx of US troops - part of a general review of US policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan - echoes the military surge credited with turning around the situation in Iraq. It also emerged last week that the US wishes to hold talks with moderate elements in the Taleban, mirroring the way it tackled the Sunni insurgency in Iraq.
In a television interview, Mr Obama made clear that there had to be limits to America's ambitions and commitments in Afghanistan.
What we cant do is think that just a military approach in Afghanistan is going to be able to solve our problems, he told CBS's 60 Minutes.
What were looking for is a comprehensive strategy - and there's got to be an exit strategy. Theres got to be a sense that this is not a perpetual drift."
Mr Obama's statement comes as a White House review of US policy on the region nears its conclusions. Today the veteran American troubleshooter Richard Holbrooke, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, was briefing Nato allies on the likely changes.
After talks with Jaap de Hoops Scheffer, the Nato Secretary-General, Mr Holbrooke was due to brief all 22 alliance ambassadors on the challenges posed by the Taleban insurgency.
It is to give the broad lines of the US strategy review as it now stands, James Appathurai, a Nato spokesman, said. "I dont know that theyve arrived at any final conclusions on which President Obama has signed off on, but their thinking is now very close to the conclusion of the process.
According to one report today, the United States and its European allies are also planning to install a powerful new prime minister in Kabul, allowing the Americans to sideline President Karzai, whose administration is considered increasingly corrupt.
"This is something that has been discussed, but it's difficult to do at the moment because it cannot be imposed on the Afghans," said one diplomat from a Nato nation. "It's something that they would have to agree on."
Over the weekend, Mr Holbrooke - best known as the man who pushed through a peace accord for Bosnia in 1995 - said that Washington had appealed to its allies to help train thousands more Afghan police as the focus moves away from military confrontation.
The Afghan national police are an inadequate organisation riddled with corruption, he said.We know they are the weak link in the security chain, so we have to figure out a way to increase the size and make them better at the same time."
The biggest disaster in the seven years, Mr Holbrooke added, was the botched anti-narcotics programme that has failed to stop Afghanistan supplying most of the world's heroin.
Britain was put in charge of tackling the drug issue under the Bonn agreement of 2001 but has struggled through a lack of resources. British sources have welcomed the US switch from crop eradication to creating alternative livelihoods.
The United States alone is spending over $800 million a year on counter-narcotics. We have gotten nothing out of it, nothing, Mr Holbrooke told the Brussels Forum on Saturday. It is the most wasteful and ineffective programme I have seen in 40 years.
President Obama said last night that he wanted a clear "exit strategy" from Afghanistan for the United States military as he prepares to pour an extra 17,000 troops into the country.
The influx of US troops - part of a general review of US policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan - echoes the military surge credited with turning around the situation in Iraq. It also emerged last week that the US wishes to hold talks with moderate elements in the Taleban, mirroring the way it tackled the Sunni insurgency in Iraq.
In a television interview, Mr Obama made clear that there had to be limits to America's ambitions and commitments in Afghanistan.
What we cant do is think that just a military approach in Afghanistan is going to be able to solve our problems, he told CBS's 60 Minutes.
What were looking for is a comprehensive strategy - and there's got to be an exit strategy. Theres got to be a sense that this is not a perpetual drift."
Mr Obama's statement comes as a White House review of US policy on the region nears its conclusions. Today the veteran American troubleshooter Richard Holbrooke, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, was briefing Nato allies on the likely changes.
After talks with Jaap de Hoops Scheffer, the Nato Secretary-General, Mr Holbrooke was due to brief all 22 alliance ambassadors on the challenges posed by the Taleban insurgency.
It is to give the broad lines of the US strategy review as it now stands, James Appathurai, a Nato spokesman, said. "I dont know that theyve arrived at any final conclusions on which President Obama has signed off on, but their thinking is now very close to the conclusion of the process.
According to one report today, the United States and its European allies are also planning to install a powerful new prime minister in Kabul, allowing the Americans to sideline President Karzai, whose administration is considered increasingly corrupt.
"This is something that has been discussed, but it's difficult to do at the moment because it cannot be imposed on the Afghans," said one diplomat from a Nato nation. "It's something that they would have to agree on."
Over the weekend, Mr Holbrooke - best known as the man who pushed through a peace accord for Bosnia in 1995 - said that Washington had appealed to its allies to help train thousands more Afghan police as the focus moves away from military confrontation.
The Afghan national police are an inadequate organisation riddled with corruption, he said.We know they are the weak link in the security chain, so we have to figure out a way to increase the size and make them better at the same time."
The biggest disaster in the seven years, Mr Holbrooke added, was the botched anti-narcotics programme that has failed to stop Afghanistan supplying most of the world's heroin.
Britain was put in charge of tackling the drug issue under the Bonn agreement of 2001 but has struggled through a lack of resources. British sources have welcomed the US switch from crop eradication to creating alternative livelihoods.
The United States alone is spending over $800 million a year on counter-narcotics. We have gotten nothing out of it, nothing, Mr Holbrooke told the Brussels Forum on Saturday. It is the most wasteful and ineffective programme I have seen in 40 years.
