Taliban may want settlement, Obama tells US troops
Hillary Clinton defends Washington’s ‘preliminary outreach’.
FORT DRUM, NEW YORK:
US President Barack Obama said on Thursday there were signs that the Taliban may be interested in a political settlement critical to stabilising Afghanistan after US troops come home.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meanwhile defended what she said was Washington’s “very preliminary outreach” to the Taliban as part of a necessary but unpleasant bid for a political solution in Afghanistan.
Obama referred to the dialogue with the Afghan insurgency for the second time in as many days, after announcing that he would bring home 33,000 troops home from Afghanistan by next summer on Wednesday.
“Because of you, we are now taking the fight to the Taliban instead of the Taliban bringing the fight to us,” Obama told Afghanistan combat veterans from the US Army’s 10th Mountain Division in upstate New York.
“Because of you, there are signs that the Taliban may be interested in figuring out a political settlement that ultimately is going to be critical in consolidating that country.”
Obama said in his primetime speech on Wednesday on the Afghan war that there was “reason to believe that progress can be made” in talks with the Taliban.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 25th, 2011.
US President Barack Obama said on Thursday there were signs that the Taliban may be interested in a political settlement critical to stabilising Afghanistan after US troops come home.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meanwhile defended what she said was Washington’s “very preliminary outreach” to the Taliban as part of a necessary but unpleasant bid for a political solution in Afghanistan.
Obama referred to the dialogue with the Afghan insurgency for the second time in as many days, after announcing that he would bring home 33,000 troops home from Afghanistan by next summer on Wednesday.
“Because of you, we are now taking the fight to the Taliban instead of the Taliban bringing the fight to us,” Obama told Afghanistan combat veterans from the US Army’s 10th Mountain Division in upstate New York.
“Because of you, there are signs that the Taliban may be interested in figuring out a political settlement that ultimately is going to be critical in consolidating that country.”
Obama said in his primetime speech on Wednesday on the Afghan war that there was “reason to believe that progress can be made” in talks with the Taliban.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 25th, 2011.