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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