Publish dateSunday 2 March 2014 - 18:40
Story Code : 86836
Obama
By informing Afghan President Hamid Karzai, our military, our NATO allies and the American people on February 25 that the US is finally planning an orderly withdrawal from Afghanistan if Karzai does not sign a bilateral security agreement (BSA), US President Barack Obama has acted prudently and in a strategically sound manner.

Currently, the US and our NATO allies have about 50,000 troops in Afghanistan, down from about 100,000 about two years ago. The United Nations and NATO mandate to keep these foreign troops on Afghan soil expires at the end of this year.

Therefore, the president must assume that these troops, and all of their equipment, will have to be completely out of the country and their bases in Afghanistan closed within 10 months.

Therefore, it is prudent that the military begin now to plan to "accomplish an orderly withdrawal" by the end of the year. By waiting until later in the year to begin planning for a complete withdrawal, Obama would create a logistical nightmare for our forces and those of our allies.

In fact, our NATO allies demanded clarity on the US position before their February 27 defense ministers meeting.

There's no doubt that the US and its allies would like to leave a residual force of between 3,000 and 10,000 troops in Afghanistan after 2014. These troops would be stationed at four military bases throughout the country, so that they could continue to train Afghan Security Forces, conduct drone strikes on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, and conduct counterterrorism missions within Afghanistan in conjunction with Afghan security forces.

Leaving this residual force advances several core American security goals. It would increase the likelihood that the post-Karzai administration would be able to prevent the Taliban from taking over all or part of the country as they did when the Soviets withdrew in 1989, and forestall al-Qaeda central from reestablishing itself in the country.
(Aljazeera)
Source : Afghan Voice Agency (AVA), International Service
https://avapress.com/vdcce4q4.2bqe18y-a2.html
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