Obama Considers Reaching Out to Taliban

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama said the United States is not winning the war in Afghanistan and hinted at possible talks with moderate elements of the Taliban.

Highlighting the success of the US strategy of bringing some Sunni Iraqi insurgents to the negotiating table and away from Al-Qaeda, Obama told The New York Times that “there may be some comparable opportunities in Afghanistan and the Pakistani region.”

The strategy in Iraq had been developed by General David Petraeus, then commander of US forces in the country.

“If you talk to General Petraeus, I think he would argue that part of the success in Iraq involved reaching out to people that we would consider to be Islamic fundamentalists, but who were willing to work with us because they had been completely alienated by the tactics of Al-Qaeda in Iraq,” Obama said in the interview published in the online edition of the Times.

But Obama warned that Afghanistan was not Iraq, and that reconciliation efforts could face difficulties …

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Analysis: Even Military Split over Iraq Pullout

By ROBERT BURNS | Associated Press

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama faces split opinions within the military on whether to make the speedy withdrawal from Iraq he championed on the campaign trail.

Obama’s top generals in Baghdad are pressing for an elongated timetable, while some influential senior advisers inside the Pentagon are more amenable to a quicker pullout.

Although Obama has yet to decide the matter, his announcement last week that he’s sending thousands more combat troops to Afghanistan implies a drawdown of at least two brigades from Iraq by summer.

But that does not answer the question that has been dangling over Iraq since he took office in January: Will Obama stick to his stated goal of a 16-month pullout or opt for a slower, less risky approach? …

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Petraeus Pushes NATO Allies to Step Up Afghan Fight

By James G. Neuger and Tony Czuczka | Blommberg.com

Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. pushed European NATO allies to send more troops to Afghanistan, warning of a resurgence in terrorist violence in the country that gave rise to the Sept. 11 attacks.

U.S. Army General David Petraeus said the security situation has “deteriorated markedly” since 2007 and appealed for more troops and war-fighting equipment to bolster stability as nationwide elections test Afghanistan’s ability to govern itself.

“I would be remiss if I did not ask individual countries to examine very closely what forces and other contributions they can provide,” Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East and Central Asia, told the Munich Security Conference today …

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