Posted on 12/08/2009 1:46:25 PM PST by NormsRevenge
KABUL (AFP) – President Hamid Karzai told visiting US Defence Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday that Afghanistan would need aid to fund its security forces for up to 20 more years, calling for a long-term US commitment.
The newly re-elected Karzai said his government would work to assume responsibility for Afghanistan's security within five years, but that the impoverished country lacked the funds to foot the entire bill.
Gates, who held talks with Karzai on implementing a new war strategy that involves sending 30,000 extra US troops to fight the Taliban, reiterated that the United States intended to start withdrawing its forces from July 2011.
"For 15 to 20 years, Afghanistan will not be able to sustain a force of that nature and capability with its own resources," Karzai told a news conference.
"We hope that the international community and the United States, as our first ally, will help Afghanistan reach the ability to sustain a force."
US President Barack Obama's plan to start withdrawing troops in July 2011 has sparked concern in Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan that the Taliban could sit out the surge and attack a pared down force in 18 months' time.
Karzai said Afghan forces hoped to assume responsibility in critical areas in another two years and "hopefully with a maximum effort to add on the whole of the country... in five years time".
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Afghanistan will be Talibanistan before our next presidential election.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (L) shakes hands with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the Presidential Palace in Kabul December 8, 2009. Gates flew unannounced to Kabul where he met Karzai, the most senior visit by a U.S. official since President Barack Obama announced a new strategy last week, sending 30,000 extra troops but pledging to begin withdrawing them in 18 months. REUTERS/Justin Sullivan/Pool
Yep..., 20 years for Afghanistan and 20 years for Iraq... :-)
This is why no one has ever conquered Afghanistan for any length of time. They’ll bleed you one way or the other. That and the fact that no central authority has ever spoken for the whole of the region. Afghanistan is like flypaper.
We are still in Germany and Japan and South Korea, how many years now??? There is no reason why we should not be killing al qaeda and the taliban as long as there are targets.
He wants a free army, infrastructure builders and police force until he retires. Surprise - he’s a international freeloader.
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