Obama: 'We'll Defeat Al Qaeda'
Huffington Post reports:
President Barack Obama is confident that the United States will be able to defeat al Qaeda and prevent the Taliban from regaining control of Afghanistan, according to his remarks in an interview set to air Monday night.
"I can say we will defeat Al Qaeda and that the Taliban will not be retaking Afghanistan," Obama said in the second part of his interview with Fox News host Bill O'Reilly. "I can't say anything with 100-percent certainty, but am confident that our troops have done an incredible amount of work. They are on the offensive rather than being on the defensive, and we're starting to transition so that Afghan security forces are taking over."
U.S. troops are set to begin withdrawing from Afghanistan in July, and the plan is to fully transfer security responsibilities to Afghans by 2014. But, Obama acknowledged, "The Taliban are still going to be an element in Afghanistan."
O'Reilly also asked Obama about the U.S. relationship with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has been widely criticized for the notorious levels of corruption within his government and for occasional comments that paint the United States as his nation's adversary.
"I trust that he cares about his country and he cares about the relationship with the United States," Obama answered, "but I do think that he's got some big changes that he has to make in his government to be legitimate in the eyes of the Afghan people over the long term."
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