In a comment which should be obvious to even the most casual long-term observer but which was quickly rejected by the White House, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari noted today that NATO was in the process of “losing” the war in Afghanistan.
Zardari said the primary problem was that the international community did not have the support of the Afghan civilian population for its ongoing occupation, adding that “we must bring to them economic development, and prove that we can not only change their life, but improve it.”
Zardari is in Paris at the moment, and plans to visit London next. His London visit is considered somewhat controversial following Prime Minister David Cameron’s criticism of Pakistan during his own recent visit to India. Cameron warned Pakistan needed to do more to prevent the “export of terror.”
Pentagon officials also angrily rejected Zardari’s comments, saying it was “too soon” to determine if the war was being won but that the momentum had shifted. The Pentagon’s positive public sentiments have themselves come under growing scrutiny since the WikiLeaks war logs showed that, privately, Pentagon officials have realized how poorly the war has been going.