US, NATO Afghan troop pullout may hurt Pakistan, India: Obama

ISLAMABAD - US President Barack Obama has warned that neither Pakistan nor India would be “better off” if the US and NATO forces are pulled out of Afghanistan.

“I don’t know anybody who has examined the region who thinks that if we completely pulled out of Afghanistan, the Karzai regime collapsed, Kabul was overrun once again by the Taliban, and Sharia law was imposed throughout the country, that we would be safer,” The Dawn quoted Obama, as saying.

“Or the Afghan people would be better off, or Pakistan would be better off, or India would be better off or that we would see a reduction in potential terrorist attacks around the world. You can’t make that argument,” he added.

Although he admitted that Afghanistan had been “very hard stuff,” even harder than Iraq, he rejected the assumption that the United States had failed in that country.

“I knew it was hard a year ago, and I suspect a year from now, I will conclude that it’s still hard, and it’s messy but America’s policies in Afghanistan had not “failed or succeeded yet”, he added.

Despite acknowledging the fact that Kandahar still remains an insecure place, Obama claimed that US troops had succeeded in creating a line of security around Kandahar. (ANI)