Obama rejects Zardari’s Afghan war is lost view

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama has rejected Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari’s conclusion that the U.S. war in Afghanistan is already lost because of the failure to win over the Afghan people.

Zardari had told the French daily Le Monde that the U.S.-led coalition had “underestimated the situation on the ground and was not conscious of the scale of the problem” against the Taliban largely because “we have lost the battle to conquer the heart and soul” of the Afghan people.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama did not see eye-to-eye with Zardari on that point.

“I don’t know why he’s come to that conclusion. But I think it is safe to say that the-the actions and the efforts that the coalition, international forces and American forces have taken over the last several months have very much the hearts and minds of the Afghan people at the forefront,” Gibbs told reporters on Tuesday. .

“The Afghan people know of the brutality of the Taliban, just as the Pakistani people on the actions that their extremist counterparts were taking in Pakistan last year, to move on the capital of Pakistan is why the country of Pakistan started to take more direct action against safe havens,” he added.

The Pentagon also disagreed with Zardari’s characterization that the war is lost.

“We would not agree with that assessment. The assessment as has been pronounced by any number of people-we have rested the momentum. I don’t think anybody has said there is a trend yet going in the other direction but it has at least stabilized and is starting to go down,” spokesman Colonel David Lapan told Fox News. (ANI)