Petraeus doubtful on Afghanistan timeline

US: US war commander General David Petraeus expressed doubts Monday about the prospect of a victory in Afghanistan by 2014, admitting that a “resilient” Taliban, squeezed out of some areas, simply pops up in others. In an interview with ABC television, Petraeus would not say he was confident that an Afghan government and its security forces would be stable and competent enough to take over from the US-led coalition four years from now, as envisaged by Washington.

“I don’t know that you say confident. I think no commander ever is going to come out and say ‘I’m confident that we can do this,’” Petraeus said in the interview in Afghanistan.

“I think that we say you assess, we believe this is, you know, a reasonable prospect,” and that US forces were doing “everything we can to increase the chances of that prospect.

“But, again, I don’t think there’s any sure things in this kind of endeavor, and I wouldn’t be honest with you or the viewers if i didn’t convey that.”

Petraeus’s moment of candor comes in the wake of US President Barack Obama’s unannounced trip Friday to Afghanistan — his second since taking office nearly two years ago — where he reassured US troops that they were winning the war against Taliban insurgents. Washington, Tuesday, AFP