Peacemaker Obama faces war decision
2009-10-09 14:00
Washington - US President Barack Obama's first task after being anointed on Friday as this year's greatest peacemaker will be to decide how to wage war in Afghanistan.
Obama sensationally won the Nobel Peace Prize less than nine months into his presidency, with the jury hailing his "extraordinary" diplomatic efforts on the international stage.
Now he faces the monumental decision over how to proceed in an unpopular and deepening war in which hundreds of American lives have been lost this year, and whether or not to commit even more troops to Afghanistan.
Obama is the fourth US leader to win the distinguished award, but he is certainly the only Nobel laureate forced to make such a monumental decision about a US war immediately after earning the distinction.
Obama may decide on US commander General Stanley McChrystal's request for up to 40 000 more troops for Afghanistan as early as Friday, when he holds the latest in a series of meetings with his top diplomatic, military and intelligence advisers on war policy.
Infusing the atmosphere of that meeting no doubt will be the extra weight on Obama's shoulders as a global peacemaker, and the reactions from around the region.
Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai immediately congratulated Obama on Friday, saying he was the "appropriate" person to win the peace prize.
"His hard work and his new vision on global relations, his will and efforts for creating friendly and good relations at global level and global peace make him the appropriate recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize," Karzai spokesperson Siamak Hirai told AFP.
'He has done nothing for peace in Afghanistan'
The country's Taliban insurgents however condemned the award to Obama as "unjust", saying the president had "not taken a single step towards peace in Afghanistan".
"We have seen no change in his strategy for peace," said Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesperson for the Islamic fundamentalist militants.
"He has done nothing for peace in Afghanistan," Mujahid told AFP. "He has not taken a single step for peace in Afghanistan or to make this country stable."
The stunning Nobel announcement came just hours after the White House said the Taliban poses less of a threat to US security than the al-Qaeda movement, raising speculation that Obama may not opt for a vastly increased counter-insurgency force in Afghanistan.
Officials involved in Obama's intense Afghan policy review argued that al-Qaeda, believed to be based in Pakistan, poses a grave danger to US interests and the American homeland while the Taliban, though hostile to US forces in Afghanistan, did not.
The assessments seemed to differ with the picture of the war painted by McChrystal, who asked for the extra troops and warned that the counter-insurgency against the Taliban could fail without reinforcements.
White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs, who has ruled out any reduction in US forces in Afghanistan, said Obama had yet to make any firm decisions as he conducts an exhaustive Afghan policy review.
Stepped up strikes
On Thursday Gibbs said there was "clearly a difference" between the two groups, styling al-Qaeda as an "entity that, through a global, transnational jihadist network, would seek to strike the US homeland".
"I think that the Taliban are obviously exceedingly bad people that have done awful things. Their capability is somewhat different, though, on that continuum of transnational threats."
The White House comments on the Taliban came after the group said on Wednesday it did not pose a direct threat to the United States.
Officials denied a US policy shift, saying that as far back as March, Obama had made a distinction between core Taliban fighters allied with al-Qaeda and forces loyal to local commanders who had been coerced or paid to fight.
The United States and its allies launched airstrikes eight years ago against the Taliban in Afghanistan, after it provided a haven for Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network to plan the September 11 attacks in 2001.
Should Obama decide to refocus the fight against al-Qaeda, he would have to rely heavily on US anti-terror ally Pakistan to help stamp out the group on its own territory and count on current or slightly increased US troop levels to keep bin Laden's group from returning to Afghanistan.
The United States has stepped up strikes by unmanned drones on top al-Qaeda targets in lawless areas of Pakistan in recent months.
Those who advocate a strong counter-insurgency believe any return to prominence by the Taliban would inevitably mean a new haven for al-Qaeda.