Source: Raw Story
Influential US experts on Friday painted a grim picture of the Afghanistan war, calling on President Barack Obama to consider scaling back the military mission without signs of progress.
The task force of the Council on Foreign Relations largely backed the Obama administration's plan of intensifying military operations against the Taliban and starting a withdrawal in mid-2011.
But the panel -- led by Richard Armitage and Samuel Berger, top aides to presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton -- said the administration needed to take hard decisions after its own highly anticipated war review in December.
The task force noted the nine-year-old war's toll at a time of austerity. The United States has some 100,000 troops stationed in Afghanistan and is spending billions of dollars in the region each month.
"The task force endorses strategies for Pakistan and Afghanistan that place severe demands on the American people," it said. "The task force does so knowing that, at best, the margin for US victory is likely to be slim."
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