WASHINGTON, March 8 (UPI) -- The United States may try reconciliation with Taliban moderates in Afghanistan in an effort to turn around its war efforts there, President Barack Obama says.
In an interview published in Sunday's New York Times, Obama, when asked if the United States was winning the war against Afghan insurgents, flatly answered "no" and opened the door to the possibility of reconciliation efforts with moderate elements of the Taliban, like the U.S. military did with Iraqi Sunni militias in a successful effort to isolate al-Qaida terrorists.
"There may be some comparable opportunities in Afghanistan and in the Pakistani region," Obama told the Times, while cautioning solutions in Afghanistan won't be easy.
Obama had broached the possibility of trying to peel off moderates from the Taliban during the presidential campaign and signaled that reconciliation could become an important initiative, repeating a strategy used by Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq.
"The situation in Afghanistan is, if anything, more complex," he told the newspaper. "You have a less governed region, a history of fierce independence among tribes. Those tribes are multiple and sometimes operate at cross purposes, and so figuring all that out is going to be much more of a challenge."
