Barack Obama outlines Nato agreement on Afghanistan.

One of the most interesting things when Obama talks about Afghanistan is that he always talks about his battle being against al Qaeda, rather than the Taliban; which both Bush and Blair decided to treat as if they were interchangeable terms.

This happened because, shortly after invading, both Bush and Blair realised that it would not be easy to get their hands on bin Laden, so they suddenly started talking about the war as if it was against the Taliban, the very people Blair had said could stay in power if only they would hand bin Laden over.

This particular piece of dishonesty was to enable Bush to parade members of the Taliban as if he had captured members of al Qaeda. It was pure theatre.

Obama is starting to identify the actual enemy. It might be a small matter, but I think it's a very good thing to emphasise. That's not to say that the Taliban are not a problem, they are, but they are largely Karzai's problem.

The international community should be concentrating on rooting out and breaking up al Qaeda. Obama is right to make this distinction.

Tags: Obama, Afghanistan, al Qaeda, Taliban, Nato