Obama’s ‘AfPak’ strategy
How can the US president take on the deteriorating security situation in the region?
Barack Obama, the US president, campaigned on a promise to wind down the war in Iraq and ramp up the war in Afghanistan.
His administration quickly realised that there would be no solution in Afghanistan without dealing with the increased Talibanisation of Pakistan.
Obama’s “AfPak” strategy has now expanded from stopping the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan to a frantic effort to bolster the government in Islamabad.
On Wednesday, Obama meets with Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistani president, and Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan’s president, to discuss ways to confront the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
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In this show Riz speaks with Reihan Salam, an associate editor at The Atlantic magazine and a fellow at the New America Foundation, to discuss the US agenda in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
This episode of the Riz Khan show aired on Wednesday, April 6, 2009.