Global Issues: Conflict - Afghanistan - US Strategy in Afghanistan

The Financial Times in a new series from Washington DC has an online tv interview with Richard Holbrooke, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. He discusses the progress of the latest US military surge in Afghanistan, the thinking behind it and the prospects for eventual withdrawal. He also discusses his ‘agnostic’ attitude towards whether the Pakistanin government has committed in whole as a partner to the US in the ‘War on Terror’ in spite of the dramatic arrest of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, an Afghan Taliban leader.

Holbrooke assers that America and its allies face a “daunting” task in Afghanistan and “it is much too early” to predict how it will turn out: “You can’t occupy every piece of terrain, so the real key is building and transferring [control to the Afghan security forces],” “It’s much too early.?.?.? I’m not ready to predict how it is going to turn out because it is a difficult challenge.”

Here is the link to the interview.

Click here for accompanying article by FT’s Richard Luce: Tough road ahead for Afghanistan transfer