No permanent U.S. bases in Afghanistan - U.S. ambassador

[xchrom]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/07/25/uk-afghanistan-usa-ambassador-idUKTRE76O0YW20110725

(Reuters) - The United States has no interest in creating permanent military bases in Afghanistan and does not want to use the country as a platform to influence neighbouring countries, the new U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan said on Monday.

Washington is negotiating with the Afghan government on a deal to define the long-term American role in Afghanistan beyond the end of 2014, when NATO-led combat troops are due to leave after handing security control to the Afghan army and police.

It remains unclear whether the "strategic partnership" agreement would explicitly refer to possible U.S. military bases in Afghanistan beyond 2014. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said the possibility of long-term U.S. bases can only be addressed once peace has been achieved.

"We have no interest in permanent bases in Afghanistan," said U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker shortly after he was sworn in at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, in an apparent nod to Afghanistan's powerful and wary neighbours.

[Obamanaut]

1. Does the ambassador *really* expect people to believe that the US

is simply going to walk away from the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the construction of the dozens of military sites spread around the country in the last 10 or ll years?

[blkmusclmachine]

2. Wasn't born yesterday.

:eyes:

[Lasher]

3. Bush pledges no permanent bases in Iraq

Feb 10, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — President George W. Bush acknowledged the United States would seek a military presence in Iraq for "years" but pledged in an interview aired Sunday that he would not establish permanent bases.

Bush brushed aside concerns expressed by critics that a Status of Forces Agreement Washington is discussing with the Baghdad goverment would commit future US presidents to a long-term deployment in Iraq.

"We won't have permanent bases," Bush told Fox New television in the interview conducted at his retreat at Camp David, Maryland.

But he added, "I do believe it is in our interests and the interests of the Iraqi people that we do enter into an agreement on how we are going to conduct ourselves over the next years."

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5izKZq1GWbhgVxwahs2y-GF2atQKw

Eight years after the invasion, there are still 46,000 US soldiers Iraq. The DoD has about 64,000 mercenaries there and the State Department has another 7,000.

These bases might not be permanent, but nothing really is.

[canoeist52]

4. Does it come down to ; define the word "permanent"?

[madokie]

5. With all those natural resources

Yeah sure ambassador Crocker we believe you