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| Defeating al Qaeda crucial for national security: US |
| Press Trust of India / Washington Oct 01, 2009, 09:44 IST |
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Maintaining that the Afghanistan war is still a "war of necessity", the US has said defeating the al Qaeda and the Taliban is crucial for America's national security.
"The President believes strongly that the goals that he outlined are still very key to our national security -- that we have to disrupt, dismantle and destroy al Qaeda and its extremist allies; that we have to prevent terrorist organisations from setting up safe havens to set up terrorist camps to plot attacks on this country," the White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.
"There's no question about that," Gibbs said when asked if the US President still views that the war in Afghanistan is a war of necessity.
Responding to the criticism the President is taking undue long time in taking a decision on Afghanistan, Gibbs said: "The American people deserve an assessment that's beyond game-playing. The men and women in Afghanistan that we've sent to serve and protect our freedom deserve that."
The men and women that might be sent to Afghanistan to serve and protect our freedom deserve that, he said. "We would expect nothing less. I look forward to his response on what he said to the previous administration when that request was sitting on the desk," he said.
Gibbs said there is no doubt that many believe that the Taliban controlling a large amount of area in a place like Afghanistan, as they did, provides safe haven for those that can reach in directly into this country and do damage.
"I think the administration shares strongly the notion that for whatever tactics you choose, whatever resources you put in, there is no doubt without the accompaniment of a willing partner that is able to provide some of that security, that is able to conduct a basic level of governance, without that -- without corruption and with transparency, is something that is going to have to be had," Gibbs said.
"That's what I mean when I say we can't be there forever. We won't be there forever. And at some point, it is going to be incumbent upon the Afghans to be able to administer, again, that base level of government without corruption, with transparency, and do so in a way that provides the security that their people need," Gibbs said in response to a question.
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