Taliban to Barack: Take troops home

President-elect Barack Obama repeatedly denounced the "failed" policies of the Bush administration in the war on terror during his successful election campaign. But now he is on the spot as Taliban leaders demand that he withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

According to a report today from MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute, several Taliban leaders are reacting to Obama's election.

"The new U.S. president can begin a new era of peace in the world. Therefore, Obama should withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan," said Qari Muhammad Yusuf Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Taliban in Afghanistan.

"We want Obama to change President Bush's policies. He can end the war that has been going on for years by withdrawing U.S. and allied troops from Afghanistan.," he said.

"An increase in the number of troops in Afghanistan cannot bring change; rather, even if a soldier is deployed for every stone in Afghanistan, the West cannot bring in [to Kabul] a government of its choice," the report quoted him saying.

MEMRI monitors media in the Middle East and provides translations of reports and commentaries.

"There is neither sadness nor happiness among the Taliban groups over the election of Barack Obama as U.S. president," Ahmadi said, "The issue is not a change of face in the U.S. presidency but [the need for] a change in policies."

He said Obama and GOP candidate Sen. John McCain "had emphasized that the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan would be increased. … If [Obama] fulfills his campaign promise, the Taliban cannot be happy about his election.

"We want to tell the world and the West to pull out their troops from Afghanistan as the Bush party has lost the race because of their flawed polices," he said.

Muslim Khan, another spokesman for the Taliban, said of Obama's victory: "The change of leadership in the U.S. will remain meaningless until the U.S. and Allied troops are withdrawn from Afghanistan.

"If president-elect Barack Obama persists with the policy adopted in Afghanistan and Iraq, and if the path to the establishment of an Islamic system in Pakistan is stopped [by the U.S.], our struggle against the U.S. will continue as ever.

"[We hope that] Barack Obama [will] respect his mandate, [and will, instead of] converting the tax money from the American public into a heap of explosives, spend [it] on their welfare," Khan said.

Syed Munawwar Hasan, secretary-general of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan, said, "There is a parallel between the February 18 elections in Pakistan and the U.S. presidential election. Here [in Pakistan], the people rejected the policies of President Pervez Musharraf, while the U.S. public used their vote against [President] Bush's policies.

"The U.S. is hated worldwide due to its foreign policies. Barack Obama will need to understand the reasons," he continued. "The U.S. has always backed dictators in Muslim states, and has trampled people's democratic decisions. The same double standard is used even in the war against terror; the U.S. has always stood by occupiers in crushing people's movements in Palestine and Kashmir.

"If Barack Obama wants to see peace in the world, he must change these policies. Otherwise, the fire lit by Bush in the name of [the war on] terrorism will spread across the world and destroy it into dust," he said.

During the campaign, Obama advocated for additional troops in Afghanistan to crush the terror faction that was attacked following the Sept.11, 2001, attacks on the U.S.