Obama moves to sell Afghan war strategy

FAILURE in Afghanistan would mean a Taliban takeover of the country and “have severe consequences for the United States and the world”, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday as the Obama administration set out to sell its new war strategy on Capitol Hill.

Lawmakers questioned the exit strategy, a day after Obama announced he was sending an additional 30,000 American troops to the Afghan war and would commence troop withdrawals by the summer of 2011.

“Failure in Afghanistan would mean a Taliban takeover of much, if not most, of the country and likely a renewed civil war,” Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “Taliban-ruled areas could in short order become, once again, a sanctuary for al-Qaida as well as a staging area for resurgent militant groups on the offensive in Pakistan.”