US focus on al-Qaeda, not Afghan politics: Biden
Biden says Bush left US at its weakest "since World War II"
American Vice President Joe Biden attacked a controversial new Afghan law as "abhorrent" on Tuesday, but said U.S. troops were in Afghanistan to root out al-Qaeda, not to uphold liberal government.
Biden said the legislation for Afghanistan's Shiite minority, which critics say legalizes marital rape and greatly restricts women's rights, was "outrageous."
But in an interview with CNN, President Barack Obama's deputy stressed: "We are not in Afghanistan ... to see that we make everything right in Afghanistan."
"Why are we in Afghanistan? This is the difference between us and the last administration. We're there to defeat al-Qaeda," he said, arguing that Obama had inherited a war from George W. Bush "that was very badly handled."
"I am prepared to send American troops to protect the United States of America, to kill al-Qaeda, to root out extremists and to prevent them being able to use Afghanistan once again as a platform to attack the United States of America," Biden said.
Afghanistan's U.S.-backed president, Hamid Karzai, Tuesday ordered a review of the Shiite Personal Status Law, which he signed in March, after an international outcry over claims it enforced Taliban-era restrictions on women.
Biden echoed other U.S. officials in distancing the Obama administration from Bush's use of the term "global war on terror," as he pressed for a more precise focus on separate struggles in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East.
He said that the Bush administration had left the nation at its weakest "since World War II" with two wars raging and international respect for Washington in tatters.
"We are more secure. Our interests are more secure, not just at home, but around the world. We are rebuilding America's ability to lead," he said.
I am prepared to send American troops to protect the United States of America, to kill al-Qaeda, to root out extremists and to prevent them being able to use Afghanistan once again as a platform to attack the United States of AmericaU.S. Vice President Joe Biden