"Overview of the Afghanistan and Pakistan Annual Review"

[Clio the Leo]

From the White House...

Overview of the Afghanistan and Pakistan Annual Review


The core goal of the U.S. strategy in the Afghanistan and Pakistan theater remains to disrupt,
dismantle, and eventually defeat al-Qa’ida in the region and to prevent its return to either
country.

Specific components of our strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan are working well and there are
notable operational gains. Most important, al-Qa’ida’s senior leadership in Pakistan is weaker
and under more sustained pressure than at any other point since it fled Afghanistan in 2001. In
Pakistan, we are laying the foundation for a strategic partnership based on mutual respect and
trust, through increased dialogue, improved cooperation, and enhanced exchange and assistance
programs. And in Afghanistan, the momentum achieved by the Taliban in recent years has been
arrested in much of the country and reversed in some key areas, although these gains remain
fragile and reversible.

While the strategy is showing progress across all three assessed areas of al-Qa’ida, Pakistan and
Afghanistan, the challenge remains to make our gains durable and sustainable. With regard to
al-Qa’ida’s Pakistan-based leadership and cadre, we must remain focused on making further
progress toward our ultimate end state, the eventual strategic defeat of al-Qa’ida in the region,
which will require the sustained denial of the group’s safe haven in the tribal areas of western
Pakistan, among other factors. And in Afghanistan, we are confronting the inherent challenges
of a war-torn nation working to restore basic stability and security in the face of a resilient
insurgency that finds shelter in a neighboring sanctuary. More broadly, we must continue to
place the Afghanistan and Pakistan challenges in larger and better integrated political and
regional contexts.

The accelerated deployment of U.S. and international military and civilian resources to the
region that began in July 2009 and continued after the President’s policy review last fall has
enabled progress and heightened the sense of purpose within the United States Government,
among our coalition partners, and in the region. As a result, our strategy in Afghanistan is setting
the conditions to begin the responsible reduction of U.S. forces in July 2011. This review also
underscores the importance of a sustained long-term commitment to the region – in Pakistan, by
way of our growing strategic partnership; and in Afghanistan, as reflected by our own long-term
commitment, as well as the NATO Lisbon Summit’s two outcomes: the goal for Afghans to
assume the lead for security across the country by 2014, and NATO’s enduring commitment
beyond 2014.

Read full transcript here...
http://www.politico.com/static/PPM182_101216_apar_overview.html

The President will speak re: the war at 11:45am

[BeFree]

1. Right

Spend untold resources over there so we don't have to spend them over here.

Why does failure seem to be the only option?

And we are doing all this just to stop another bunch of Saudis from hijacking airplanes? WTF?

[msongs]

2. I coulda wrote that assessment and only charge the govt $100. would be just as true nt