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Subscribe to RSSThe pace of the troop withdrawal will be at the top of the agenda when the U.S. and Afghan leaders meet Friday. NBC News' Thanh Truong reports from Kabul.
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai held a critical round of talks on Friday that could help determine how fast the United States withdraws troops from Afghanistan and whether it leaves a residual force after 2014.
Hosting Karzai at the White House, Obama faces the challenge of pressing ahead with his re-election pledge to continue winding down the long war in Afghanistan while preparing the Afghan government to prevent a slide back into chaos and a Taliban resurgence once most NATO forces are gone.
Karzai's visit, which follows a year of growing strains in U.S.-Afghan ties, comes amid stepped-up deliberations in Washington over the size and scope of the U.S. military role in Afghanistan once the NATO-led combat mission concludes at the end of next year.
White House officials have left open the possibility of a complete U.S. withdrawal after 2014 -- as happened in Iraq in 2011 -- an option that conflicts with the Pentagon's view that thousands of troops will be needed to bolster and train still-fragile Afghan security forces.
But talk of this "zero option" may actually be a gambit to squeeze concessions from Karzai, who has yet to agree on immunity from prosecution for any U.S. forces that stay behind under a bilateral security pact being negotiated. It could also send a message to the Pentagon to scale back expectations of future troop levels.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai had harsh words for the U.S. during an exclusive interview with NBC's Atia Abawi.
The White House believes Obama and Karzai, despite a history of sometimes tense relations, can narrow their differences. But Obama aides expect no breakthroughs or concrete agreements and say it will be months before Obama decides how many troops -- if any -- he wants to keep in Afghanistan.
U.S. officials have said privately that the White House is asking for options to be developed for keeping between 3,000 and 9,000 troops in the country. General John Allen, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, had initially suggested that as many as 15,000 troops should remain.
With some 66,000 U.S. troops currently in Afghanistan, Obama is also deciding on the pace of this year's troop reductions. Afghan forces are due to take the lead role in security across the country in 2013.
'War of necessity'
Obama once called Afghanistan a "war of necessity" but is heading into a second term looking for an orderly way out of the conflict, which was sparked by the September 11, 2001, attacks by al-Qaida on the United States.
Former Senator Chuck Hagel, Obama's nominee to become defense secretary, is likely to favor a sizable troop reduction.
Aref Karimi / AFP - Getty Images
More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.
Deliberations between Obama and his aides on winding down the unpopular war will have to compete with other priorities dominating his agenda, including the next round of U.S. fiscal showdowns and an intensifying push for gun-control measures.
Many of Obama's Republican opponents have criticized him for setting a timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan and accuse him of undercutting the U.S. mission by reducing the size of the U.S. force there too quickly.
Karzai's talks with Obama -- together with a working lunch and joint news conference -- cap a series of meetings this week with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and top lawmakers.
"After a long and difficult past, we finally are, I believe, at the last chapter of establishing ... a sovereign Afghanistan that can govern and secure itself for the future," Panetta told Karzai at the start of talks at the Pentagon on Thursday.
Clinton and Karzai met at the State Department Thursday night, and Karzai entered the White House to meet Obama at 10 a.m. ET Friday.
Also on the agenda for the Obama-Karzai talks are tentative reconciliation efforts involving Taliban insurgents. Those efforts have shown flickers of life after nearly 10 months of limbo.
Karzai and his U.S. partners have not always seen eye to eye, even though the American military has been seen as crucial to securing his tenure from insurgents' attempts to oust him.
Additional reporting by David Alexander and Warren Strobel.
Related stories:
World's best frenemies: Karzai, Obama set to discuss long-term ties
EXCLUSIVE: US, NATO behind 'insecurity' in Afghanistan, Karzai says
Full Afghanistan coverage from NBC News
Leave a Comment:
This is Obama's 'Just War', nothing to do with Bush...
Bush & the UK turned the Afghanistan 'Nation Building' over to the UN & 52+other Countries, DEC 2001...
It was Obama that doubled and then doubled AGAIN the US Troop levels and placed his 'Hand picked' General in charge. He then FIRED this General and picked another, whom he also FIRED. Due to public statements about a POLITICAL WAR being unwinable...
Obama needs to give his FAILING WAR back to the UN and let the WORLD finish this mess, that another Democrat POTUS started...
POTUS Carter with his adviser that stated, "What is more important in world history - a few stirred up Muslims or the fall of communism?" This was after they spend Billions of US Dollars; arming, funding and training the radical Afghanistan Muslims, using the CIA & ISI (Pakistan)...
Hey AC, That was Reagan not Carter!
Question: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs ["From the Shadows"], that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention. In this period you were the national security adviser to President Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct?
Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention...
reference - w.globalresearch.ca/articles/BRZ110A.html
Reagan assumed office - In office. January 20, 1981 – January 20, 1989.
We got out of bush's lost war in Iraq and now it is time to get out of bush's lost war in Afghanistan for good. No troops! We've already had 7,200 body bags and their wasted lives Thanks to that evil man!
I say "bush's War" because he started them and they weren't inherited like Obama had to. Thank God he has taken us out of both of them, or we are in the process!
So you are saying President Bush took us into both wars all by himself. Congress had no say in either. hmm!
clwyd, yes and probably 20,000+ injured on top of that. That's a lot of families affected to support a country whose national sport is killing each other.
Here's a "plan" for you two to discuss over lunch...
Pull our people out this week, pull our money out Monday.
Same one i advocate throughout the Mideast. Let the troglodytes kill each other off as the have for century's. what part of ...." They don't want us there, and none of our troops want to be there." ...are you having such a problem understanding..? Of course for this to work you have to have a leader who cares about THIS country and will seal OUR OWN damn boarders.And spend the trillions involved on OUR own people.
.
Whew....ok people you can go back to the Blame Game now....
Good idea. As part of the plan, find Karzai a new place to live.
Yep. The Ship of State is sinking, and most of the passengers want to spend their last hours arguing over whose fault it was we hit the iceberg.
Dude......................, shut up already.................., please?
Just get out! If the terrorists regroup, in Afghanistan, we have card blanche to strike them as we please. No more nation building!
Dave,
Yup, that is what I'm saying. Congress voted to go into the wars based on lies that they were fed and they still are all bush's wars! They were fed lies about WMD that weren't there!
clwyd-2621393
I say "bush's War" because he started them and they weren't inherited like Obama had to
I don't remember at anytime Bush Campaigning that we should put troops in Afghanistan. But I do remember Obama Campaigning that we should have gone to Afghanistan rather than Iraq, because the Taliban had taken over the country after Bush pull most of the troops to fight in Iraq.
So bottom line Bush did not start both wars in less that a year we were not in Afghanistan he left a few troops to help the Afghan army. Obama promised we would go back into Afghanistan and finish what bush had started. So just like the today's economy Obama owns Afghanistan.
Bob,
Who the H sent in the American military int he first place? Based on lies!
Obama sent in a surge upon the recommendation of the generals to try to win bush's lost wars. Get in touch with reality! Now he has taken us out of Iraq and we should have All our troops out of Afghanistan by next year or sooner!
Remember bush has a warrant out for his arrest by the World Court in the Hague, Netherlands for War Crimes. Why else has the bushwhacker( Also the Worst President Ever!) been hiding in Crawford, Texas most of the last 4+ years. He's a criminal!
clwyd-2621393
Who gives a rip whose fault it is at this point? Blame Bush, fine, but why does Obama still have troops over there being killed, for no good goddamn reason?
Bring the troops home and put them where they are really needed - on the Mexican border!
This has been Obama's WAR for 6 YEARS NOW!!
I never said Bush did not start a the war in Afghanistan, he did clean out the Taliban, had them on the run, left and went to Iraq. Obama campaign on going back and he based it on, we should have never left. I can understand you fell a sleep for a few years. But Obama sent in a large number of troops and a year later put in more for surge. Obama went back due to the Taliban had regrouped and was gaining back a foot hold in the country. Obama said when campaigning we should not have left Afghanistan. He may be right, but I think the only reason he went back was he open his mouth before thinking and put himself in a box. But any way he owns Afghanistan he put us there, we were out, we should have stayed out. Its History no matter how many times you post it's the other guys fault, go back and read your history.
Rockyroad,
Typical lies from the right! He's only been in office for 4 years ( how can it have been his war for 6 years now????) Get in touch with reality and the truth. Boycott FOX propaganda!) The Inauguration is coming up for the end of his first 4 year term and beginning his next 4 years.
Bob,
I've taught it for 44 years now! That is why I say it is bush's war and he had the Taliban on the run and then stopped. Great strategy.
Then your living proof of why students have a 50% drop out rate in schools. Because to teach hate and that its other guys fault is not teaching history. Still go read your history, I guess today you still think Bush owns the economy too. I feel sorry for the students you've trough and are teaching today because you allowed them to miss out on the great story of this country. Because we have Socialist teaching in our schools today who think if they write it or say it its the truth no matter whats right in front of their faces. You my friend, give good teachers a bad name. With that I leave you.
Bob James-7423676
Bobbi my boy, you are a self-righteous idiot. GW just started us down this road. Obama is only picking up the pieces of the car-wreck Bush left this country in. These things happen when lose site of long term goals and instead try to make their mark in the world. As far has learning your history pal. Historians look at causes and effects and the road taken to get there. They don't access blame most of the time only choices that lead to outcomes and the variable in between.
Also do really know the meaning of the word "socialist"? If someone who lived 100 years ago or even 50 heard your views on politics, they'd probably call you a communist. So I wouldn't bandy about tossing labels on people and institutions especially when you don't know the exact meaning of the words you're tossing out.
Too many people these days mimic catch-phases they've read and heard both left and right without looking past them and at the real issues, causes and effects. I guess we all like neat, convienent tidy packages that don't cause too much time for thought. Sorry to disullision anyone but life doesn't come in neat, convienent and tidy packages.
This isn't a "Leave it To Beaver" "Brady Brunch" world, this real life. Nothing is ever black and white but it is all the shades in between.
Nope, it was Carter. He tried to buy friends in Iran, and lost the gamble. I liked Carter though. Not a good president, but a great guy. His intentions were always good, and that to me allows a lot of forgiveness for his weaknesses.
Months before the revolution, on New Year's Eve, December 31, 1977, American president Jimmy Carterfurther angered anti-Shah Iranians with a televised toast to the Shah, declaring how beloved the Shah was by his people. After the revolution culminated with the return of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini from France in February 1979, the embassy had been occupied and staff held hostage briefly. Rocks and bullets had broken enough of the embassy front-facing windows for them to be replaced with bulletproof glass. Its staff was reduced to just over 60 from a high of nearly 1000 earlier in the decade.[19]
The Carter administration attempted to mitigate the anti-American feeling by finding a new relationship with the de facto Iranian government and by continuing military cooperation in hopes that the situation would stabilize. However, on October 22, 1979, the United States permitted the Shah—who was ill with cancer—to attend the Mayo Clinic for medical treatment. The State Department had discouraged the request, understanding the political delicacy,[20] but after pressure from influential figures including formerUnited States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Council on Foreign Relations chairman David Rockefeller, the Carter administration decided to grant the Shah's request.[21][22][23]
The Shah's admission to the United States intensified Iranian revolutionaries' anti-Americanism and spawned rumors of another U.S.-backed coup and re-installation of the Shah.[24]
Revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini—who had been exiled by the Shah for 15 years—heightened rhetoric against the "Great Satan", the United States, talking of what he called "evidence of American plotting".[25] In addition to putting an end to what they believed was American plotting and sabotage against the revolution, the hostage takers hoped to depose the provisional revolutionary government of Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan, which they believed was plotting to normalize relations with the United States and extinguish Islamic revolutionary ardor in Iran.[26]
A later study found that there had been no plots for the overthrow of the revolutionaries by the United States, and that a CIA intelligence gathering mission at the embassy was "notably ineffectual, gathering little information and hampered by the fact that none of the three officers spoke the local language,Persian". Its work was "routine, prudent espionage conducted at diplomatic missions everywhere".
wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_hostage_crisis
Why should we leave any troops at all in a country that doesn't want us there, whose soldiers turn on our troops and kill them like cowards and we can no longer afford the billions were spending daily to be there. Get our troops home and stop policing the world. It's time we start looking out for America. Get the losers off welfare that are draining our financial system, kick out all illegals that are flooding our once great nation and let's start taking care of our citizens. Do you realize that if we focused on ourselves for a while we wouldn't need to tax ourselves to the point we are presently and in turn the economy would flourish once again.
If America just close down 50% of the nearly one thousand foreign military bases and outpost, America will have trillions of dollar to deal with the national debt.
A war economy cannot sustain a domestic economy for long. America can pretend it can have both "Gun and Butter." But the day of reckoning is coming due.
"Hosting Karzai at the White House, Obama faces the challenge of pressing ahead with his re-election pledge to continue winding down the long war in Afghanistan while preparing the Afghan government to prevent a slide back into chaos and a Taliban resurgence once most NATO forces are gone."
If you don't know what you are getting into, then one does not know where one is going!
Bush and his team had zero ideas on Iraq and Afghanistan. They had mortgaged their brains to Saudi rulers, oil companies and their lobbyists.
Karzai is President of Afghan Presidential palace!
Obama is hoping against Paki based militants take over right after 2014!
If all things are on air, no wonder they don't know what is going on in the ground!
WallStFatCat,
Remember what happened after POTUS Clinton/Bush Sr gutted the US Military; cutting Troop levels by 1/3, cancelled programs and closed bases around the World???
The SAVED money was squandered/dedicated to 'Feel Good' social programs and expanding CRA, then 9-11 occurred. After the 9-11 Terrorist; funded, planned and trained during Clinton's watch, due to his lax immigration/visa enforcement policies...
The US Combat Troops were then FORCED to go to War; wearing sub-standard body armor and driving armored Humvee made with junk-yard steel/sand bags...
Some of us were on-the-ground watching the evisceration and knew the consequences...
The USA now has:
1. Less than 95 operational B-52 (ALL older than 50+years) and fewer than 35 other long-range bomber types (ALL out of production)...
2. The US Atomic Sub Missile Fleet has reached its service life, around 65+subs. No NEW versions are being built or New designs authorized...
3. The USA does not currently have a viable defense system against the Hyper-sonic Anti-Ship DF-21d...
While China has been INCREASING its Military budget by DOUBLE Digits for the last three+decades...
We would save money closing down many of our bases around the globe, but it hardly adds up to trillions. Unless of course you are as they do in Washington adding up at least a decade or more. I love it when Obama says he cut over a trillion in spending but that is only if you add it up over 10 years. Apparently it just doesn't sound as impressive saying he cut 50 billion in spending. But it doesn't mean we shouldn't close down some bases anyway. Leaving a US presence has nothing to do with our commitment to Afghanistan and everything to do with who is going to have a stake in the vast mineral deposits in that country.
Correct Rick. Also the world needs the US to maintain a global presence to insure that we won't have another WW. It is always a possibility as certain as Humans have a war nature. In the coming years, with quite an uncertain economic equilibrium worldwide, conflicts are even more likely.
Saving billions or trillions of dollars could be a divestment that ends up costing HUNDREDS of trillions of dollars worldwide. The US military presence is the cost of insurance against that threat. Yet I don't believe America should be paying the whole bill. Unless letting the world fall into chaos is a geopolitical strategy for some reason.
Nice try at propaganda. It's not about 'troop strength." It's about withdrawal from Afghanistan. An exit strategy without appearing to run with your tail between your legs.
Like the 10 year Vietnam War, America's 11 year war misadventure has cost thousands of American lives and ten of thousands of Afghan's. Divided in peace time, the tribal warlords have united with the Taliban and other extremist groups in a guerilla war against the foreign invader, the United States. Tens of thousands of orphans created by US bombings and assassinations have grown up remembering the death and destruction brought to their homeland by the Invader. If their mission were not jihad, it would be to avenge the death and maiming of their love ones. America's Global War on Terrorism has created more terrorists than ever before. War cannot bring peace. Mass killing of Afghans will not make American sleep better. And those who live by the sword shall die by the sword.
There will be no charade of victory as in the "Peace with Honor" treaty that allowed the US troops to leave Vietnam with some semblance of dignity. The Afghan guerilla will do to USA what they did to the USSR invader: unconditional withdrawal. In the early 1900s, Churchhill and the British Army also had learnt to curb their military adventure in Afghanistan.
The Military Industrical Complex and the war lovers have had their thrill for over 11 years in Afghanistan. And too many foolish young Americans are only too willing to die for them because they are brainwashed that their death is part of patriotism, duty to country, and honor. The seductive Army recruitment jingle, "Be all that you can be......." ignores the fact that you can be in a shallow grave in Afghanistan. " The Few, the Proud, ....the Marines"..... side step the fact you will be among the thousands who died for nothing because you are cannon foddars in the eyes of the Generals.
When Obama assumed office there were around 30+k US Troops in Afghanistan...
The UN was looking at LOWERING the TOTAL numbers of Troops involved, as the Netherlands, France, Canada, and others were lowering or pulling their Troops out of Afghanistan...
In December 2012 there were about 102,000 Nato troops serving in Afghanistan from 50 contributing nations, according to the International Security and Assistance Force (Isaf).
Of these the bulk - about 68,000 - are US troops...
After more than a decade of war, the Taliban are a long way from being defeated and have been growing in strength. Many of Nato's territorial gains are by no means irreversible and the militants still have the capacity to launch devastating surprise attacks such as; Kabul in April 2012 and the September 2012 attack on Camp Bastion. Civilian casualties have risen steeply every year for the past five years... see - w.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11371138
Obama has KILLED twice the number of US Troops and spent TWICE the US Tax dollars, as POTUS Bush. In HALF of the time and accomplished - NOTHING. Except:
1. ASSASSINATING - ONE MAN, whom BOTH POTUS Clinton & POTUS Bush had refused to kill...
2. ESCALATED the CIAs 'Drone Wars' to almost every country where a Muslim lives and now including US Citizens on his authorized 'Hit List'...
WallStFatCat - Ever do anything CONSTRUCTIVE for your Country???
""After a long and difficult past, we finally are, I believe, at the last chapter of establishing ... a sovereign Afghanistan that can govern and secure itself for the future," Panetta told Karzai at the start of talks at the Pentagon on Thursday."
Can anyone say: which world Panetta is in?
No wonder many are screaming on withdrawing from Afghanistan to enter to Syria and Iran!
Yep! Nailed it Jonathan, as usual! Now we wouldn't want to dissapoint
the Sunni Islamist Terrorist Jihadist thugsour "buddies", the al Nusra Saudis, now would we???On to the next military fiasco. NEVER let a good ole fashioned proxy war opportunity go to waste! We gotta rescue us MORE Muslims! Lol!
AC Robertson, a descendant of Europeans, resides in Thailand as a transplant. And he has the gall to ask me if I have done anything "Constructive" for my country?
WallStFatCat,
My family came across with the first English settlers and I'm 1/8 American Indian...
My family has fought in EVERY War and conflict on the American side, serving in the Army, Navy and USMC...
We have not relied on; government hand-outs, unemployment, food stamps or school loans. Though the Queen did award us a land grant for services rendered. My mother's family was freeing their farm slaves prior to the Civil War...
I did my 26+years in the USMC and worked in the US until I could draw early SS. I have traveled the World and decided to settle in the most peaceful/drug free area with the best weather. You enjoy your cold and high prices/taxes, I earned my mild weather, low prices/crime rates, and NO Taxes...
You could move here also, but your lack of income/money, criminal record, and/or addictions. Will prevent you from obtaining a Visa...
Just go with the zero option. Then we won't have to worry about how many of those 3000 To 9000 troops we're willing to sacrifice.We've invested enough to support this particularly useless puppet government.
".We've invested enough to support this particularly useless puppet government." Well said Den O synn.
Was anyone in government aware that every army/nation that has tried to invade and hold Afghanistan has had their asses handed to them?
rsskjeie,
Maybe this is why Bush & the UK turned the Nation Building over to the UN - Dec 2001...
Every conflict that the USA has entered into sense WWII has ended in humiliation for the US...
The most modern and expensive fighting force, the World has ever seen, has been defeated by flip-flop wearing illiterates, riding horses...
Iraq I, left Saddam with his Interior Guard intact and with the ability to poison/gas hundreds of millions, in Iraq & Iran. Plus, paying the families of successful terrorist bombers, tens-of-thousands of USD and mounting a ASSASSINATION attempt on POTUS Bush Sr...
we have to leave a country where the people don't want us there,the taliban will be right back doing the dirty deeds of past,maybe if we let our troops grow the beards and wear the clothes they wear,we could annihilate them when they think we have gone,the old blackwater crew is more than likely up for that as they like the action,we always go to war with the big show,when small bands of soldiers work just as good.don't we ever learn?
As LBJ did in Vietnam, Obama saw a conflict he could ESCALATE for POLITICAL reasons...
Mike, thank you for your service. I also am a Vietnam veteran. My son is a Green Beret and they along with the rest of Special Ops will never leave Afghanistan, they already know that. And yes they grow beards and dress like the enemy. The meetings are all just window dressing.
SF Dad:
Your wrong.
Your son and perhaps".......along with the rest of Special Ops" will leave Aghanistan: In a body bag courtesy of the Military Industrial Complex and the war mongers of DC and war lovers in the Pentagon.
Like too many of America's finest young people who came back from Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan and Pakistan in body bags, you son will be given the full military honor ceremony. You'll be handed a folded flag that earlier drapped his coffin and the Sargeant will salute you, and the Special Officer from the Pentagon will praise your son and you for making the ultimate sacrifice to America, and tell you America is proud of both of you. He'll even give you a hug and a handshake. Then it's all over.
After than long silent drive home, you sit down and stare at that flag. And your eyes wonder over to the family photo of your son when he was young, naive, and full of life. You ask why this and why that. Why my son? Why I don't feel proud? Why I don't feel happy?
The pain is too great, so you close your eyes and tell yourself "Freedom isn't free" or "He died serving his country" or other popular cliche. None of that stuff change your feelings, ease the lost, the pain, the emptyness.
You, too, have now become one of the statistics. One of the casuality of war.
Welcome to the Terror Wars, this is just the start, you think we are winning, then good for you. Hold onto those hopes. When we get home and have all our forces getting some badly needed rest, the FBI and CIA will be running full force to try and find the terrorists that are already here. Home grown terrorism is in every country, and these wars have only given them a reason to exist. The Terror wars will be around for a long time yet. You can defeat a country, but not an ideal, it crossed boundaries, national boarders, and religious ideals, all things that no one country has.
Op, op op op op, oppan Afghan style.
Too many of our troops have been killed for this these Muslim Country. The US does not belong in these Muslim countries. The religious and cultural wars have occurred for l,000 of years. Kazai does not want the US, and if the Afghans have not been trained at this point, then it is hopeless. Our troops need to be on the US border protecting the families in the US, and preventing illegals from Mexico and flow of drugs. Obama needs to get his priorities in order. Stop cutting the benefits of Americans and feeding this war for billions, when the people are too lazy to fight for themselves.
The troop levels should be zero Americans. Karzai is a lying, backstabbing, piece of trash who's only interest is keeping his hand in the pockets of the USA. Abandon these scum sucking leaches to their fate. Use drones and surgical strikes to eliminate those who we feel are a threat. Pull all our troops and equipment from this wasteland. We have needs among our own people right here in the USA and our soldiers are to valuable to throw away for a people who do not even value their own children's lives other than for how much cash will they bring.
WallaceJ:
Karzai and his government in Kabul is a US installed puppet so as to give an Afghan face to the American invasion of Afghanistan. Prior to his lucrative appointment as the President of Afghanistan, Karzai was a resident and a working-stiff in California.
As to ending the Afghan war immediately, it is not possible. There is too many hands in the cookie jar and the war profiteers are standing in line waiting their turn at the punch bowl. The party is good, the booze is flowing freely, and the music is the constant "Ka-jing, Ka-JING!" Money is changing hands at the rate of nearly one trillion dollars per year just for the Afghan war alone.
There ain't gonna be no last call or last dance at this party. Not if the Military Industrial Complex has a say.
When I read about Syria and the need for US intervention in Syria, I see some posts with Bible, Jesus and so on!
"Many of Obama's Republican opponents have criticized him for setting a timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan and accuse him of undercutting the U.S. mission by reducing the size of the U.S. force there too quickly."
For a change let Republicans should send their children and relations and those Bible thumping people to stabalize in Afghanistan.
After all the NATO forces are withdrawn, the forces should comprise of these brave people with all versions of Bibles on earth unlike in Saudi Arabia.
They should not come back till all things are normal in Afghanistan.
I am sure they will make all things normal in Afghanistan.
Well jonathan, if you had of paid any attention, you would know that the military has more republicans than democrats. You are just a typical liberal.
IWonder: If one opposes reckless and worthless wars and shameless withdrawals/runs one becomes a liberal!
Iraqi wars are classical examples.
Who with little sense would go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq and that too with "strategic allies" like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan?
Did they know the history of those places?
At least, on Syria and Iran, I want to be on the right side.
I guess when you have a position like "president," that talking to poisonous snakes disguised as leaders, comes with the territory - Problem is, snakes like these (Karsai), always bite with "forked-tongues!!"
And the " War Machine " grinds on. As for Mr. Karzai, he's in DC for one reason only.
After ending the "combat mission" in Iraq because the Obama administration could not negotiate a Status of Forces agreement; could we be looking at the same result?
If we withdraw totally on schedule, won't the Taliban and the Iranians be all too happy?
Quit wasting American lives for the Oboma Muslim Agenda - Furthermore, cut all funding to the Muslim Radical Nations immediately!
The appropriate uniformed troop level in Afghanistan should be zero. The appropriate level of CIA and special forces should be enough to identify terrorists and where they are. The appropriate level of drones should be sufficient to act on that information.
If Karzi is to receive any US or NATO troop help at all. Then the first thing, that should have been demanded long ago, is that he openly communicate the request to his people. On a daily basis, if needed, openly support and take responsibility that he has asked the foreign troops to remain and why.
The idea that his people consider the foreign troops as invaders and the Karzi government has done nothing to relate anything different, in more than ten years, is a complete failure. That has caused the loss of life on both sides. By way of any green and blue attack committed by what is nothing more than an average Afghan citizen attacking what they believe is a force of occupation. Imagine if you will the American response to even a hint of an invading force at our shores or border and then tell me our troops should remain there under such a belief.
That the Afghan people, instead of being helped by foreign troops, think they are fighting a war against invaders, an enemy that is not even there, fighting occupation. And instead of benefiting from the help that is offered. Believe from our frustration to continue to stay and waste resources helping those to foolish to see the help. That they are winning a war, against invaders, that they aren't even in. And when we finally leave, through their stupidity and ignorence, they will believe they beat us and chased us out of their country and won a war that only they were fighting. What fools they are and how sorry they will be when we leave them alone to fight the real enemy.
The idea that foreign troops are seen as invaders means that the people are hearing the lies spread by terror groups louder and more convincing than anything from the Karzi government. Until Karsi is willing to stand up and take at least a vocal risk, to enlighten his people to the truth, for his own country, no one else should be asked to risk a thing.
Yes we should leave Afgan and let them deal with their own problems. But the GOP wants to stay for eternity!
Don't be idiotic. It is obam whose four year 'don't shoot policy" that has led to more American deaths than under 7 years of of Bush. The Clinton State Department has changed the ROE to the point that our soldiers are nothing more than targets. Get some facts before you post. Why do you think the MSM never, ever, ever, reports anything about events in Afghanistan?
Our cultures are so different that we cannot understand or reason with each other. We can kill them or leave them alone but we will never make them like us. We need to go.
The bottom line should be "all US troops out of Afghanistan by the end of January, 2013." Hamid, you got a problem with that?
get out, out means everything
This is one of the rare instances where I actually have something constructive to add that just might help President Obama in his discussions with Karzai.
The number of Americans left after 2014...."0".
Some folks have pointed to other nations filling the void after the Americans leave and thereby claiming all the rich mineral mining rights, Good Luck with that.
May I make a suggestion ? How about ZERO ? Get our people out of that sh!t pie !!!!
Start packing Today.. leave tomorrow. IF we have to go back, next time do it with a bombing campaign and a POTUS with a will to win.
True, Bush did not enter Afghanistan correctly and Obama still has troops there. This is just a giant cluster fu*k.
It's quite obvious many Afghans don't want us there. The longer we're there, and the more people we kill, the more radicalzed they will become. Let's cut our losses and go. We can't win. Billions of dollars and many lives saved instantly. I just hope Obama has the nuts to stand up to the defense industry lobby.