Obama hints at talks with moderate Taliban

WASHINGTON US President Barack Obama said in an interview released Saturday that the United States is not winning the war in Afghanistan and hinted at possible talks with moderate elements of the Taliban. Highlighting the success of the US strategy of bringing some Sunni Iraqi insurgents to the negotiating table and away from Al-Qaeda, Obama told media, "there may be some comparable opportunities in Afghanistan and the Pakistani region." The strategy in Iraq had been deployed by General David Petraeus, then commander of US forces in the country. "If you talk to General Petraeus, I think he would argue that part of the success in Iraq involved reaching out to people that we would consider to be Islamic fundamentalists, but who were willing to work with us because they had been completely alienated by the tactics of Al Qaeda in Iraq," Obama said in the interview published on the a website. Asked if the United States was winning the war in Afghanistan, which he has called the "central front in the war on terror," Obama simply replied, "No."  "You've seen conditions deteriorate over the last couple of years. The Taliban is bolder than it was. I think in the southern regions of the country, you're seeing them attack in ways that we have not seen previously," he said.  "The national government still has not gained the confidence of the Afghan people."