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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Afghanistan 'tougher than Iraq' | Afghanistan 'tougher than Iraq' |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| President Obama's envoy to Afghanistan has said winning the conflict there will be "much tougher" than in Iraq. | President Obama's envoy to Afghanistan has said winning the conflict there will be "much tougher" than in Iraq. |
| Richard Holbrooke told a conference in Munich: "I have never seen anything like the mess we have inherited." | Richard Holbrooke told a conference in Munich: "I have never seen anything like the mess we have inherited." |
| At the same summit the architect of the US surge in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, urged similar measures for Afghanistan. | At the same summit the architect of the US surge in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, urged similar measures for Afghanistan. |
| General Petraeus warned that Afghanistan was likely to get harder before things improved, and called for a future change in tactics there. | General Petraeus warned that Afghanistan was likely to get harder before things improved, and called for a future change in tactics there. |
| The BBC's Rob Watson, at the security conference, says Gen Petraeus was clearly borrowing on lessons learned from Iraq. | |
| In future US forces would live and work more closely with ordinary Afghans. More effort would be made to promote local reconciliation and good government, the general added. | |
| 'Long struggle' | |
| The Obama administration is stressing that it is still reviewing its Afghan policy. | |
| But Ambassador Holbrooke told the conference that Washington would be working under the principle that Pakistan and others in the region would have to be part of the solution to Afghanistan's problems. | |
| "What is required in my view is new ideas, better coordination within the US government, better coordination with our Nato allies and other concerned countries, and the time to get it right," he said. | |
| The envoy, who is to embark on a tour of the region soon, also said: "It is like no other problem we have confronted, and in my view it's going to be much tougher than Iraq. | |
| "It is going to be a long, difficult struggle." |