Pentagon has issued its assessment of the Afghanistan war, prompting Obama to call for an urgent change of strategy: aggressively hit the Al Qaeda and Taliban lairs in Pakistan with military assistance from Islamabad.

In a prepared report that is touted to be one of the strategic foundations of the “new strategy” in Afghanistan, the generals recommend to temporarily set aside efforts to democratize Afghanistan in favor of the military objective to defeat the Taliban in their own bulwark.

The report insists on the need to increase military presence in Afghanistan, but does not stipulate the number of soldiers that will be needed. Obama had already announced his intention to send to Afghanistan three additional combat brigades (14,000 soldiers), The Pentagon, however, is studying the possibility of increasing the current number of troops well up to 60,000 soldiers by the end of the year.

Pentagon recognizes that Pakistan’s border regions are a factor that is related to the campaign in Afghanistan. The work that Pakistan is doing to reduce and eliminate Taliban sanctuaries must be taken into account, according to the Pentagon. One thing is certain to American authorities, and that is if they do not solve the problem of Pakistan, they cannot win the war in Afghanistan.

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Via The Market Oracle