US Afghan plan must have 'exit strategy': Obama

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WASHINGTON, Mar 23 (AFP): US President Barack Obama said the United States must have an "exit strategy" in Afghanistan even as it expands its military, diplomatic and economic fight against a Taliban insurgency.
"What we're looking for is a comprehensive strategy," Obama said in an interview aired Sunday on CBS television's 60 Minutes show.
"There's got to be an exit strategy," he said. "There's got to be a sense that this is not a perpetual drift."
Obama's comments come as he prepares to roll out a new strategy for Afghanistan, against a backdrop of rising insurgent violence that has questioned the viability of a seven-year-old US-led effort to create a functioning democracy.
Obama said a decision last month to send 17,000 more US troops to Afghanistan -- largely to head off a spike in violence before elections in August -- was the most difficult he has had to make since taking office.
"You know I think it is the right thing to do. But it's a weighty decision because we actually had to make the decision prior to the completion of (the) strategic review that we were conducting," he said.
US commanders have said as many as 30,000 additional troops are needed to overcome a stalemate in parts of Afghanistan. But some analysts caution against a gradual Vietnam-like escalation in a country historically hostile to outsiders.
In the CBS interview Obama narrowly defined the US mission in Afghanistan as: "Making sure Al-Qaeda cannot attack the US homeland and US interests and our allies. That's the number one priority."
"In service of that priority there may be a whole host of things that we need to do," he said. "We may need to build up economic capacity in Afghanistan. We may need to improve our diplomatic efforts in Pakistan.