Obama Opacity on Afghanistan Seen Risking Strong Taliban
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President Barack Obama’s failure to spell out his plans for Afghanistan is adding to the risk that some Afghans will start negotiating deals with the Taliban, according to former U.S. officials who visited the country.
“In Afghanistan right now there’s a huge amount of anxiety about the scale and nature of the U.S. commitment long-term,” Obama’s former Undersecretary of Defense Michele Flournoy, who was on the trip last month and was the Pentagon’s third highest-ranking official, said in an interview.