Petraeus: Afghan, Pakistan Problems Are Really One

A soldier with the US Army's 6-4 Cavalry watches the hills surrounding Combat Outpost Lowell in eastern Afghanistan January 6, 2009. (Bob Strong/Reuters)

From Yahoo News/AP:

WASHINGTON – U.S. policy to win in Afghanistan must recognize the poor nation's limitations and its neighborhood, especially its intertwined relationship with U.S. terrorism-fighting ally Pakistan, the top U.S. military commander in the region said Thursday.

Army Gen. David Petraeus, who became a household name overseeing the war in Iraq, now oversees the older, smaller and less promising fight in Afghanistan as well. He predicted a long war in Afghanistan, without quantifying it.

Petraeus told a Washington audience that a winning strategy in Afghanistan will look different from the one in Iraq. He offered few specifics as the incoming Obama administration assess its options in the 7-year-old Afghanistan war that has gone much worse than anticipated, just as U.S. fortunes have improved in Iraq. He also suggested the United States and its partners in Iraq may one day have common purpose with Iran, another Afghanistan neighbor, in stabilizing and remaking that country.

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