The White House on Friday indicated that the Obama Administration has not yet formulated an exit strategy as it is still focused on achieving its primary goal of defeating Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the region.
“I think the (US) President has always discussed, and particularly since coming to office, that there isn’t a military solution alone for Afghanistan. We do not have the troops or the money to be there in perpetuity,” the White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
“I think the Secretary of Defence has been pretty clear on this, as well, that we are not there to build some utopian democracy. We have very clear goals. We are working with Congress on those benchmarks to disrupt, dismantle, and destroy al Qaeda and its extremist allies,” he said.
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When specifically asked about the exit strategy, Mr. Gibbs said: “The President and Congress are working on very strict benchmarks to measure our progress in, as I just said, dismantling, disrupting, and destroying Al Qaeda.”
“But the President does not in any way envision us being there forever,” Mr. Gibbs said in response to a question.
Mr. Obama will continue to talk about the objectives and the goals that he has for this policy, Mr. Gibbs said, adding, the US does not have the human resources or the material resources to be there forever.
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