U.S. not winning in Afghanistan, Obama says

President Obama said this weekend that the U.S. is not winning the war in Afghanistan, and that his administration is considering options to shake up military strategy in the country.

When asked in his New York Times interview if the U.S. is winning, Obama simply said, “No.”

The president indicated that the administration is considering reaching out to some more moderate Taliban insurgents to seek reconciliation, mirroring a successful strategy in Iraq.

“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.

He also cautioned for patience, given the spate of difficult issues confronting his administration right now.