Obama’s Afghanistan goals due soon

[unhappycamper]

Obama’s Afghanistan goals due soon
By Anne Gearan and Anne Flaherty - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Mar 13, 2009 7:43:03 EDT

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration expects to announce new objectives for the war in Afghanistan as soon as next week that place an onus on next-door Pakistan to contain extremism, defense and administration officials said Thursday.

The White House objectives were expected to roughly parallel 15 goals contained in a 20-page classified report to the White House from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Among them were getting rid of terrorist safe havens in Pakistan and adopting a regional approach to reducing the threat of terrorism and extremism in both countries.

An administration official said that although the review was not complete, one thrust was that Pakistan needed to recognize that combating extremism was in its own interest as well as that of U.S.- and NATO fighting forces across the border in Afghanistan. The official, like others interviewed for this story, spoke on condition of anonymity because the review was not complete.

President Barack Obama was expected to explain the redrawn U.S. objectives to NATO allies when he attends a NATO summit in Europe next month.

The in-house review coordinated by the White House National Security Council lays out objectives over three- to five years, although that doesn’t necessarily mean the U.S. military could leave in that time, defense officials said.


Rest of article at: http://armytimes.com/news/2009/03/ap_obama_afghanistan_goals_031309/%2e