*Karzai says Afghanistan Army Will Need Help Until 2024*

[avaistheone1]

KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday that Afghanistan would not be able to pay for its own security until at least 2024, underscoring his government’s long-term financial dependence on the United States and NATO even as President Obama has pledged to begin withdrawing American troops in 2011.

Mr. Karzai spoke at a news conference here with Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, who did not put a timetable on the American and allied financial commitment but acknowledged that there was a “realism on our part that it will be some time before Afghanistan is able to sustain its security forces entirely on its own.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/world/asia/09gates.html





We can kiss a 2011 exit goodbye. We are going to be Afghanistan for at least the next 15 years.

Goodbye domestic programs. Hello impoverishment.

[asdjrocky]

1. USA! USA! USA!

[vaberella]

2. You've resurrected this crap of an article again. Is Karzai our President?!

Between the media and some of the DU people---I get the feeling Obama is not our President.

[avaistheone1]

3. Perhaps you can straighten out the NY Times on this.

THEN I will make a correction.

:eyes:

[vaberella]

10. Sure...like anyone can let the media know who is President.

Because you alongside so many others forget (or maybe it's wishful thinking) our President is Obama and he makes the final decision on what happens. Not Karzai---who everyone believes is corrupt and the US government is currently working around---but we take his word for it. Please.

[avaistheone1]

13. Then you asking us to trust Obama who is trusting Karzai who is no better than the mafia

to make the withdrawal in 2011 a reality.

Awwwww puhlease!

[mdmc]

4. In order to win (pro-west Afghanistan) we need 100 years

blood and treasure..

[DCBob]

5. NATO will take over...

once the heavy lifting is done by US troops..

[avaistheone1]

6. The NATO nations have been reluctant to send more troops to the escalation.

NATO is only providing 7,000 more soldiers.

I doubt they are going to have the stomach or the resources in 2011 to take this over.

[jenmito]

7. " We can kiss a 2011 exit goodbye." Our troops will start coming home in 2011 just as Obama called

for. We were never going to get all of our troops out IN 2011. Nothing has changed.

[avaistheone1]

9. Fairy tales can come true. It can happen to you...

Yeah sure, if there is any draw down in 2011 the numbers will be insignificant, or we will be replacing our troops with paid mercenaries just like we are doing in Iraq. So the American people still get stiffed.

That is not change I can believe in.

[atreides1]

12. You're right

Those troops who are being rotated out of Afghanistan will come home in 2011, to be replaced by troops rotating back into Afghanistan!

We're getting mixed signals, Gates says one thing, McCrystal says something else, Karzai is saying yet another, who do we believe?

Me, I'm not a blind, rose colored glasses wearing kind of person. So I'll maintain my scepticism until I actually see some reduction in forces, starting in Iraq.

And sending those troops to Afghanistan doesn't really count as a reduction, it's more like moving moving pieces from one square to an ajacent one.

[ClarkUSA]

8. "We are going to be Afghanistan for at least the next 15 years." Prove it. You're spinning as usual.

You really can't accept that Pres. Obama will end both wars by 2011, can you?

Funny how the alleged peaceniks aka. Failers around here seem to be obsessed with pushing the idea
of never ending war around here without a shred of evidence.

Hmm...

[avaistheone1]

11. Ah hah hah! The very next day after Obama made his announcement about the escalation and the

withdrawal date of 2011, his administration started back stepping and saying a 2011 withdrawal may not be possible.

Pay attention.