Family Life

08.23.10 | FL News Team

(Indianapolis, IN)  --  The U.S. military has only now begun to fully engage al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.  So said Vice President Joe Biden in a speech to the VFW national convention in Indianapolis.  Biden said only this month has General David Petraeus received what the military had said would be needed to succeed in the Afghan war.  He called on VFW members to not buy into talk that the U.S. has failed in Afghanistan, and argued "we now are only beginning," adding the U.S. has the right general and the right forces on the ground.

Mr. Biden said starting in July of 2011, the U.S. will work with Afghanistan to begin turning security over to local troops and police on a province-by-province basis.  He pledged the U.S. military is not leaving at that time, but wants to make clear to the Afghan government they need to step up and exercise sovereignty if "they're ever going to prevail."