Obama prepared to leave no troops in Afghanistan after 2014

[jenmito]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama has told the Pentagon to prepare for the possibility that the United States will not leave behind any troops in Afghanistan after its troop drawdown at the end of this year, the White House said on Tuesday.

Obama said he had given the order to the Pentagon in a phone call on Tuesday to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has refused to sign a bilateral security agreement that the United States insists it must have before agreeing to leave a contingent of troops behind.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was carrying the modified U.S. position to Brussels for discussion during a meeting with NATO defense ministers that starts on Wednesday.

"Specifically, President Obama has asked the Pentagon to ensure that it has adequate plans in place to accomplish an orderly withdrawal by the end of the year should the United States not keep any troops in Afghanistan after 2014," the White House said.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-tells-pentagon-prepare-possibility-leaving-no-troops-165207500.html;_ylt=AwrBTzxs3gxTP1cAkJ5XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTB0bmZpbDRtBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkA1ZJUDMyMF8x

[Kingofalldems]

1. #1 Draft Dodger Dick Cheney not liking this one.

He wants perpetual war as long as he doesn't have to participate.

[mopinko]

3. well, beyond cashing the checks, that is.

i still don't know why his profit on these wars is ignored. talk about the elephant in the room.

[jenmito]

9. Then I love it even more! I'm sure McCain andGraham not liking it, either. n/t

[alcibiades_mystery]

2. Karzai government will last 22, maybe 25 days

He'll sign.

[SunSeeker]

6. Karzai is not long for this world.

His fate will be much like the puppet president under the Soviets, as soon as the Soviets pulled out. The locals killed him and stuffed his genitals in his mouth (maybe not in that order).

[liberalmike27]

8. Yea

And it will all end up being a huge waste of money. And of course Obama and Democrats will be blamed for not buying into a perpetual war for the "hearts and minds" of Afghanistan, when in truth they hate us and all the air we breathe for keeping us alive, and in their country, killing their relatives.

[AgingAmerican]

4. Uh, oh!

Right wing heads are gonna explode! Run for cover!

[rdharma]

5. It's about time! nt

[another_liberal]

7. Thank you Mr. President!

Finally we leaving that disaster behind.

[gussmith]

20. Hellooo

We are not leaving; that is the point!!

[another_liberal]

23. Are we seeing the same OP?

The one I see closes this way: "President Obama has asked the Pentagon to ensure that it has adequate plans in place to accomplish an orderly withdrawal by the end of the year should the United States not keep any troops in Afghanistan after 2014."

How does what you see read?

[mike_c]

11. this is just multidimensional chess, with smoke and mirrors....

I'll believe it when I see it. Karzai will sign, and American troops will stay in Afghanistan.

[jenmito]

12. Yup-we'll ALL believe it when we see it, but I think we WILL see it. n/t

[mike_c]

13. I hope you're right!

[Kelvin Mace]

14. Great, wish I beleived it

I am guessing that clandestine troops will be left behind, and Blackwater-like mercenaries.

[tridim]

15. You do understand that Obama is the President, not Bush. Right?

Because to not believe something that serious, there has to be some sort of reason... Like a massive list of promises that the Admin has broken. Waiting.... Waiting....

So, why don't you believe it?

And ODS is not a reason, it's an excuse for willful ignorance.

[dreamnightwind]

17. Iraq

We left a large number of special ops and contractors in Iraq, it's not ODS to consider this possibility. Not saying the two situations are the same, but there is precedent. So I for one would like to know the plans for any such forces that will be left in Afghanistan if we pull all of our troops out.

This looks like posturing to me, they want Karzai to sign and are trying to make him think about life in Afghanistan without our protection.

[Kelvin Mace]

25. Are you genuinely asking a question

you wish the answer to, or simply showing off your contempt for my opinions?

I shall assume the former.

I don't believe it because war is just too damned profitable for defense contractors and after having spent 13 years in a country making money hand over fist, I just don't see these folk meekly giving up. I don't see Obama not being persuaded by his generals (who are basically the staff of the defense contractors) to leave some troops behind, "just in case".

For the record, I hope I am wrong.

[Skittles]

26. this war has been a loser since day one

WHY THE F*** are we still there?

[msongs]

16. "prepare for the possibility" = I'm thinking about maybe doing it. leadership fail nt

[blkmusclmachine]

18. Those troops will be needed to help patrol what the USA is turning into.

[gussmith]

19. Why Is President Obama Cow Towing?

Karzai is totally undependable and unpredictable. Why is Obama awaiting his response? Tell Karzai this is what we are doing by this date AND DO IT. Why are we literally begging to leave troops, etc. in Afghanistan?

[freshwest]

24. Taliban in Afghanistan + Pakistan. Pakistan + Nukes = Taliban + Nukes. So we're there. n/t

[rug]

21. It looks like President Karzai, not President Obama, is the one who is getting U.S. troops out.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

22. From your keyboard to God's monitor.

I certainly hope we can completely pull out.

And then maybe pull out of Iraq.

[freshwest]

27. AFAIK we are out of Iraq:

Iraq War: Last US Troops Leave Country



REBECCA SANTANA 12/17/11

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/18/iraq-war-last-us-troops-l_n_1156037.html

Deadly Iraq war ends with exit of last U.S. troops

By Moni Basu - CNN December 18, 2011

http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/17/world/meast/iraq-troops-leave/index.html

Last American Troops Leave Iraq Marking End of War

December 18, 2011
Associated Press

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/12/17/last-american-troops-leave-iraq-marking-end-war/

[jenmito]

29. Thank you for all of that info. n/t

[dreamnightwind]

30. IIRC about 50,000 "contractors" remain

That was a figure I heard a couple of years ago, don't know how many are there now but it didn't sound like they were going anywhere anytime soon.

[jenmito]

32. Can you find a link to back up what you think you remember correctly? TIA. n/t

[dreamnightwind]

33. I found a couple of links

which support a high contractor count but not nearly as high as I remembered. Not my intention to exaggerate. I did some Googling, it was hard to find this info and I was never satisfied that I had found the actual count. Here are a couple of things, both quite old though, talking about State Department projections.

http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/nationworld/report/102411_iraq_contracting/iraq-pullout-could-mean-more-non-competitive-defense-contracting/
According to a preliminary estimate given at the Senate hearing, the State Department plans a persistent presence in Iraq of roughly 17,000 U.S.-paid workers, of which 14,000 may be contractors. On Friday, White House officials, speaking on background at a briefing for reporters, projected that 4,500 to 5,000 of these will be employed in guarding three U.S. diplomatic posts in Irbil, Basra, and Baghdad.

http://www.dylanratigan.com/2011/12/14/thousands-of-us-contractors-will-replace-troops-in-iraq/
But after they come home, 16,000 U.S. contractors on our tax payroll and personnel will stay behind in Baghdad wearing our identity and doing our work. In fact, Baghdad will be the largest U.S. embassy on the planet for the United States.

There has to be a more reliable and current source for this, if anyone has it I'd appreciate seeing the info.

[jenmito]

34. Thanks, but the links are from 2011 and since there's nothing more recent,

maybe it's because it didn't happen.

[dreamnightwind]

35. That would not be my interpretation

More likely it means it isn't worth more than 10 minutes of my time to peruse the Google for you.

[jenmito]

36. You're the one who made the claim, so if it's not true, it's not true. And I don't

BLAME you-you just didn't remember correctly.

[dreamnightwind]

37. Actually I responded to a post claiming we are out of Iraq

If you don't count the 16,000 or whatever employees working out of the U.S. Embassy there, and whatever those people do, I guess you could make that claim (I know it wasn't your claim). Though I think there are also some contractors there not working out of our embassy.

The number I remembered was incorrect, the continuing existence of U.S. personnel and contractors there was and is correct. Or did we close our largest embassy?

The relevance to your OP is that your OP talks about Obama asking the Pentagon to prepare to remove all "troops" out of Afghanistan. So that applies to the Defense Department. Though I think it's mostly posturing to persuade Karzai to agree to a security arrangement, it is a positive sign. Even if it happens, though, it is good to keep awareness on who and what we leave behind in these countries, and what kind of things they are doing, rather than just claiming that we are out of there. Most if not all of the people working for the U.S. in Iraq work or contract for the State Department not the Defense Department.

[jenmito]

38. I googled it and found a link stating how many contractors are in Iraq now:

Iraq Summary

Contractor Posture Highlights:

On December 15, Mission Iraq transitioned the Embassy’s Office of Security Cooperation (OSC) Foreign Military Sales (FMS) site at Umm Qasr Naval Base to the Government of Iraq (GOI), two weeks ahead of schedule thus ending the major role of contractors supporting DoD in Iraq. The few DoD contractors that remain will now be accounted for by DoS.

As of the 1st quarter FY14, USCENTCOM reports the total number of contractors supporting the U.S. Government in Iraq was approximately 3.2K.

This will be the final USCENTCOM report on Iraq contractor numbers.

http://www.your-poc.com/iraq-afghanistan-contractor-census-1st-quarter-oct-jan-2014/

[dreamnightwind]

39. That appears to be only the Defense contractors

not the State Department contractors. I see the wording from your quote does appear on that page, but if you read the rest of the page it specifically says the figures are for Department of Defense contractors.

I don't know what the real # is, nor do I want to put a lot more time into determining it. Thanks for posting that link. My only point is to resist the inclination to say that we are out of Iraq, or that we are leaving Afghanistan. I welcome all reductions.

[mwrguy]

28. Every woman should leave the country as well

It's going to be bad.

[davidpdx]

31. That is what needs to be done