Karzai, Obama discuss Afghan strategy
- Source: Global Times
- [01:10 December 02 2009]
- Comments
By Hao Zhou in Islamabad and Zhang Wen in Beijing
US President Barack Obama and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai have discussed the details of Washington's new military strategy for the war-torn country, AFP cited Karzai's office as saying Tuesday.
The two presidents held an hour-long video conference to discuss aspects of the new strategy and "security, political, military and economic issues were discussed in detail," the palace said in a statement.
In a televised address at 8 pm (0100 GMT today), Obama was expected to announce deployments of up to 30,000 more troops to battle the resurgent Taliban, Al Qaeda and to secure Afghan cities.
He needs to convince skeptics fearing a Vietnam-style quagmire that a plan to boost troop numbers to 100,000 can fashion a victory of sorts and a path home for US forces sent to war after the 9/11 attacks.
Opinion polls show sliding public support for the war, with more than 900 American soldiers killed so far in Afghanistan.
"An increase of troops in Afghanistan is not the proper solution to the problem, and it will be very dangerous," said Makhdoom Babar, the president and editor in chief of Pakistan's Daily Mail newspaper. "It just means there are more targets for the Taliban militants."
"Instead, the US Army should improve its image there to help economic development rather than leaving there as an invader," Babar said. "The US government should provide opportunities to re-engage the Taliban gunmen, who are indeed extremely poor people, after they drop their weapons."
