US troops may stay in Afghanistan until 2024

[The Northerner]

America and Afghanistan are close to signing a strategic pact which would allow thousands of United States troops to remain in the country until at least 2024, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

The agreement would allow not only military trainers to stay to build up the Afghan army and police, but also American special forces soldiers and air power to remain.

The prospect of such a deal has already been met with anger among Afghanistan’s neighbours including, publicly, Iran and, privately, Pakistan.

It also risks being rejected by the Taliban and derailing any attempt to coax them to the negotiating table, according to one senior member of Hamid Karzai’s peace council.

A withdrawal of American troops has already begun following an agreement to hand over security for the country to Kabul by the end of 2014.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/8712701/US-troops-may-stay-in-Afghanistan-until-2024.html

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. Damn! The disappearing Light at the end of the tunnel...again.

[Obamanaut]

2. "Hope and Change" = "Same Song, Different Day" nt

[Karmadillo]

3. Well, the final year still ends with a 4.

nt

[Major Hogwash]

4. So, what? We still have troops in Germany and Korea.

This is yesterday's news.

[Bluebear]

11. Yes, all three nations compare favorably

[Major Hogwash]

17. Change is hard for most people to adapt to unless they have a say in it.

That's why in most companies, they hold meetings to let people that work there know that there are going to be changes made in the way the operation is managed.
In some companies they give them some say in how the changes will be implemented.

In the military, there are no votes taken for how things will be done.
Orders come from the top, so the soldiers do what they are told.
The military is not managed as a democracy, and never was.
The people who will serve in the military will volunteer for that kind of duty.
They are the ones who will have to serve in Afghanistan.
It's their choice.

I never served in Germany because when I joined the Army I thought it was more important to guarantee the job I would get rather than the location.
When I joined the Army after the Vietnam War, you could get a guarantee for the location, or the job, or the unit that you wanted to serve with.
The unit I served with stayed stateside.
But, I know a lot of guys that chose a particular infantry unit because it was stationed in Germany.
Duty in Germany was pretty good duty.
I haven't ran into too many veterans who were soldiers who served over there that didn't enjoy it.

I haven't ran into too many veterans who served in Korea, but the few I did talk to said it wasn't all that bad.

Afghanistan is a different situation.
As is Iraq.
That's part of the change that we didn't get to choose when Bush invaded those 2 countries.
Since Bush invaded those 2 countries he is the one that is responsible for us having troops in those countries, not Obama.
Obama is just cleaning up the mess that Bush left for him when he left the White House in January 2009.

Bush never had an exit strategy for either country before or after he invaded.
Yet, in 2004 Bush bashed John Kerry for not having a clear enough exit strategy, even though Kerry actually did have one.

[Historic NY]

5. Mis-information old Hamid Karzai is gone soon.

[Systematic Chaos]

6. We'll be there until Peak Oil renders it impossible to gain anything further from the place.

Then all those troops will be brought home so the Mad Max nightmare scenario right here at home can play out in earnest.

:shrug:

[Angry Dragon]

8. They have a lot of minerals also

[Systematic Chaos]

13. True enough, but without petroleum as a base those minerals are about as useful...

...to us as they would have been to people several centuries ago.

[CleanGreenFuture]

15. I wish I could friend you because it is nice to see someone who understands exactly

what is a the very most-common denominator in this entire current world paradigm.

And I've noticed something since I've been here, NO ONE wants to discuss it. Well, except for a very few, like you.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. I am waiting for vietnamization to start

it will...

And the USSR did sign quite a bit of treaties with the Afghani government as well. We know the USSR still have troops there, don't we?

[rbnyc]

9. That's gonna be a damn long sit-in...

...at Freedon Plaza.

http://october2011.org/frontpage

[jtrockville]

10. (self-delete)

[TK421]

12. color me surprised n/t

[Octafish]

14. Twilight Zone Democracy: We kill bin Laden and we still have to stay another 13 years.

War for War's sake. The oil must be really important to War Inc, Wall Street and the Powermad Greedhead class.

Good night Democracy. Good night United States of America.

[Amonester]

16. I bet the pols who will keep 'em there forever will not be elected...

(or re-elected) :(



Looks like the 'bubble' of 20-something approval ratings (**'s)...