US goals in Afghanistan achievable, says Obama

Expressing his resolve to refocus on Afghanistan and Pakistan, president Barack Obama has said that American goals of uprooting terrorists safe havens were achievable in Afghanistan.

Soon after announcing the timeline to withdraw all US troops from Iraq by 2011, Obama, in his speech at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, said: "it is time now to refocus on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He last week announced to send an additional 17,000 troops to Afghanistan and has been conducting an extensive review of US policy with regard to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The president has also appointed Richard Holbrooke as the Special Envoy for the region.

In Television interviews to CNN and PBS, Obama said that US goals in Afghanistan so far have not been clear enough that is why he said he has ordered a "head-to-toe, soup-to-nuts" review of the Afghan policy.

"Minimal goals in Afghanistan is that we make sure that it's not a safe haven for al-Qaeda, they are not able to launch attacks of the sort that happened on 9/11 against the American homeland or American interests," he said.

The president said that the US had no interests or aspirations to be in Afghanistan over a long term.

Our goal which is achievable, Obama said, "is to make sure it's not a safe haven for terrorists and to make sure that the Afghan people are able to determine their own fate."

Obama's assertions on the troubled region came after high level delegation from Afghanistan and Pakistan led by their respective foreign ministers met senior US officials in Washington this week to give their crucial input for the new US policy.

Obama said: "there's no doubt that, had we stayed more focused on Afghanistan and the problems there and had we thought through more effectively Pakistan and its role in this whole process of dealing with extremists, then we would probably be further along now than we are."

"We can no longer deal with regional challenges in isolation– we need a smarter, more sustainable and comprehensive  approach. That is why we are renewing our diplomacy, while relieving the burden on our military," he said.

"That is why we are refocusing on Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, developing a strategy to use all elements of American power to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon," Obama said.

"We now have to move forward. It's my job to come up with the best possible approach, given some of these mistakes that have been made and the fact that the situation right now has deteriorated badly in Afghanistan," the President said.

Obama said Afghanistan is not a US mission alone, it is a NATO mission. "One of the things that I think has been lost is the sense of international partnership in dealing with the problem of international terrorism," he said.

"When I go to the NATO summit in April, to have a conversation with our NATO allies... to figure out, how do we coordinate more effectively to move the ball forward?" he added.