'I think what you will hear from General (David) Petraeus, President Obama, President (Hamid) Karzai, and all of us is that we now have all of the components of the strategy that President Obama directed a year ago,' she said.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton today said that President Barack Obama's Afghanistan strategy is working and the international forces are making progress on the ground, a day after NATO leaders agreed to hand over Kabul the control of the war-torn nation by 2014.
"I think what you will hear from General (David) Petraeus, President Obama, President (Hamid) Karzai, and all of us is that we now have all of the components of the strategy that President Obama directed a year ago," Clinton told the Fox News in an interview.
"We believe it's working, and not only do we in the American government believe it's working; what was particularly reassuring is that the expressions of support that came from the NATO ISAF partner countries also recognised that we are making progress on the ground," she said.
"In the meeting that I just came from that President Obama had with President Karzai, we were very clear in saying we have to continue to do what is working, but we cannot do it to the extent that it turns people against the very strategy that's working," she said.
Responding to questions about recent statements from Karzai, that seemed to be highly critical of US and NATO forces, Clinton said the Afghan president is expressing legitimate concerns that come to him from his own people.
"If you have a night raid and you take out a Taliban leader, he's all for that. If you have a night raid and four or five other people who have nothing to do with the Taliban are collateral damage, that's a problem. Everybody understands that," she said.
"So what we're trying to do, and I think we are succeeding through a lot of hard work by our military and civilian leadership on the ground, is to constantly try to get that balance right," Clinton said.
The NATO Summit in Lisbon, she said, was a real vote of confidence in the strategy that is being pursued by the NATO ISAF coalition.
"We are following the lead of President Karzai and the Afghans, who have set 2014 as the year during which security will be transitioned to the Afghans," she said.
"There was discussion today and an agreement by the NATO and ISAF partners that there will be a continuing effort to train and equip and support the Afghans. But the point of the declaration by the NATO and ISAF partners is that the transition to lead Afghan security will occur during 2014," Clinton said.
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