President Obama said the review shows that the United States and its partners are "on track" to reach their goals. He said the goal is not to defeat every single threat to Afghan security.
BARACK OBAMA: "We are focused on disrupting, dismantling and defeating al-Qaida in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and preventing its capacity to threaten America and our allies in the future."
The Taliban said the review was propaganda designed to create "baseless hope."
The United States currently has about one hundred thousand troops in Afghanistan. The plan is for American troops to begin leaving in July and for Afghans to control their own security by the end of twenty-fourteen.
Mr. Obama said for "security gains to be sustained over time, there is an urgent need for political and economic progress in Afghanistan."
A new survey by the Washington Post and ABC News found that sixty percent of Americans now think the war is not worth fighting.
On Monday, the president lost his special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, appointed in January of last year. Richard Holbrooke died at the age of sixty-nine. Last Friday he suffered a torn aorta, a large artery that carries blood from the heart to the body.
President Obama called Richard Holbrooke "one of the giants of American foreign policy."
Anthony Dworkin is an analyst for the European Council on Foreign Relations.
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2013-11-25
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2013-11-25
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2013-11-25