ASSESSOR DE SEGURANÇA NACIONAL DO PRESIDENTE OBAMA, JAMES JONES, DISSE À CNN, NESTE DOMINGO, QUE ELE NÃO VÊ RISCO IMINENTE DE QUE O AFEGANISTÃO CAIA NAS MÃOS DO TALIBAN E QUE A PRESENÇA DA ALKAEDA
FOI MARCADAMENTE REDUZIDA .
By Caren Bohan (enviado por Luiz Leite e Izza Matos)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's national security adviser said on Sunday he did not see an imminent risk Afghanistan would fall to the Taliban and said al Qaeda's presence there had been sharply reduced.
"The good news that Americans should feel at least good about in Afghanistan is that the al Qaeda presence is very diminished," White House national security adviser James Jones told CNN.
The next step in this is the sanctuaries across the border" in Pakistan, Jones said. "But I don't foresee the return of the Taliban and I want to be very clear that Afghanistan is not in imminent danger of falling."
In the deadliest battle for U.S. troops in more than a year, eight American soldiers were killed after tribal militia stormed two combat outposts in a remote area of eastern Afghanistan, the military said on Sunday.
The troop deaths come as Obama has been convening his top foreign policy advisers for a series of meetings to consider options for the eight-year-old war. His administration is split over whether to boost U.S. forces or take an alternative path.
Jones' comments differed in tone from the grave assessment offered by General Stanley McChrystal, the head of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, who called the situation there "serious" in a speech last week and said success in the campaign against the Taliban could not be taken for granted.
McChrystal last week told the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London that the insurgency in Afghanistan was growing. He is seeking up to 40,000 more troops and trainers for the Afghan war, according to U.S. officials.
McChrystal warned in a confidential assessment that was leaked to the media last month that if the Afghan government were to fall to the Taliban, it could again become a base for terrorism.
NOT A "FAIT ACCOMPLI"
"What General McChrystal has done is presented his opinion, is presenting his opinion of what he thinks his role within that strategy is," Jones said later on the CBS program, "Face the Nation."
He said Obama is reviewing a regional strategy that also includes Pakistan and was considering options.
"The president should be presented with options, not just one fait accompli," he said.
Asked on CNN if Afghanistan could once more become a sanctuary for al Qaeda, Jones said, "I think that's a hypothetical."
He said that the maximum estimate of al Qaeda militants operating in Afghanistan was "less than 100 ... No bases. No buildings to launch attacks on either us or our allies."
Discussing al Qaeda's presence in Pakistan, Jones said the government and army had done better than expected at dealing with that threat on its side of the border.
Jones said on CBS that the relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan military was "on the ascendancy" and that a successful campaign against militants on the Pakistan side of the border could lead to "a strategic shift that will spill over into Afghanistan."
Vice President Joe Biden has proposed narrowing the mission in Afghanistan and concentrating instead on attacking al Qaeda targets that are primarily in Pakistan.
McChrystal has said such a strategy would probably be "short sighted."
Americans' patience with the Afghanistan war has eroded and many lawmakers in Obama's Democratic party would be reluctant to widen the U.S. presence there. Republican lawmakers, meanwhile, have criticized Obama for delaying a decision on McChrystal's request.
"I would not commit to more combat troops at this time," Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told CBS.
But Representative Ike Skelton, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said he had urged Obama to grant McChrystal the extra troops he has requested.
Skelton said it was crucial to prevent the Taliban from returning to power because if it did, al Qaeda could once again find a safe haven.
"Just like water running down hill. They're going to come back in," he told CBS. "That's the purpose of this entire mission, to quell the al Qaeda and to make sure that the Taliban is not there to invite them back."
(Reporting by Caren Bohan; editing by Anthony Boadle and Cynthia Osterman)
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