progress in achieving our core goal, disrupting, dismantling and defeating al qaeda. today al qaeda s senior leadership in the border region of afghanistan and pakistan is under more pressure than at any point since they fled afghanistan nine years ago. according to the president, the taliban s momentum has been reversed in much of the country. he said that is fragile. mr. karzai told ambassador eikenberry he had three main enemies, the taliban, the u.s. and the international community. he said if i had to choose sides today, i d choose the taliban. back to our president today. we will continue to help strengthen pakistani s capacity to root out terrorists. nevertheless, progress does not come fast enough. we will continue to insist to
to achieve our goals. it s important to remember why we remain in afghanistan. it was afghanistan where al-qaeda plotted the 9/11 attacks that murdered 3000 innocent peep, it is the tribal regions along the afghan-pakistan border from which terrorists have launched more attacks against our homeland and our allies and if an even wider insurgency were to engulf afghanistan that would al-qaeda more space to plan these attacks. that s why from the start i ve been clear about our core goal. it s not to defeat every last threat for the security of afghanistan because ultimately it is afghans who must secure their country and it s not nation building, because it is afghans who must build their nation. rather, we are focused on disrupting, dismantling, and defeating al-qaeda in afghanistan and pakistan. and preventing its capacity
thanks to the extraordinary service of our troops and civilians on the ground, we are on track to achieve our goals. it s important to remember why we remain in afghanistan. it was afghanistan where al qaeda plotted the 9/11 attacks that murdered 3,000 innocent people. it is the tribal regions along the afghan/pakistan border from which terrorists have launched more attacks against our homeland and our allies. and if an even wider insurgency were to engulf afghanistan that would give al qaeda even more space to plan these attacks. that s why from the start i ve been very clear about our core goal. it s not to defeat every last threat to the security of afc, because ultimately it is afghans who must secure their country. it s not nation building, because it is afghans who must build their nation. rather, we are focused on disrupting, dismantling and
defeating al qaeda in afghanistan and pakistan, and preventing its capacity to threaten america and our allies in the future. in pursuit of our core goal, we are seeing significant progress. today al qaeda s senior leadership in the border region of afghanistan and pakistan is under more pressure than at any point since they fled afghanistan nine years ago. senior leaders have been killed. it s harder for them to recruit, it s harder for them to travel, it s harder for them to train, it s harder for them to plot and launch attacks. in short, al qaeda is hunkered down. it will take time to ultimately defeat al qaeda and it remains a ruthless and resilient enemy bent on attacking our country, but make no mistake, we are going to replain relentless in disrupting and dismantling that terrorist organization. in afghanistan, we remain focused on the three areas of our strategy.
to threaten america and our allies in the future. in pursuit of our core goal we are seeing significant progress. today al-qaeda s senior leadership in afghanistan is under more pressure than at any point since they fled afghanistan nine years ago. senior leaders have been killed. it s harder for them to recruit, it s harder for them to travel, it s harder for them to train, it s harder for them to plot and launch attacks. in short, al-qaeda is hunkered down. it will take time to ultimately defeat and it remains a ruthless enemy bent on attacking our country. but make no mistake, we are going to remain relentless in disrupting and dismantling that terrorist organization. in afghanistan, we remain focused on the three areas of our strategy. our military effort to break the taliban s momentum and train afghan forces so they