Obama To Extend Afghan War Till 2024??

SharpshooterTom

When Obama took over from Bush in 2009, he immediately increased the US troop presence there from 33,000 to 70,000, then announced later in the year to increase to 100,000.

Now the Americans have roughly 70,000 troops still in Afghanistan with all combat troops to be removed by the end of 2014 in two years time.

However Leon Panetta and administration officials are now contemplating how many troops will actually stay in Afghanistan post 2014 for at least 10 more years to continue training the army, as many as 20,000 could stay.

In explaining the status of Afghanistan planning, Panetta said the administration is weighing Allen’s options on post-2014 troop levels. He would not reveal what troop levels are being considered, but it is believed that at least several thousand could be needed for several years beyond 2014.

“My hope is that we’ll be able to complete this process in the next few weeks,” Panetta said.

The decision will depend in part of the Afghan government’s willingness to permit a post-2014 U.S. military presence and to provide legal guarantees for those troops that are acceptable to Washington.

Once that decision is made, U.S. officials have said they will set a timetable for reducing troop levels between now and the end of 2014. There now are about 67,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and their mission is evolving from combat to advising, assisting and training Afghan forces.

A post-2014 U.S. military presence also would be expected to include hunting and killing extremists, including members of al-Qaida in Afghanistan.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/panetta-administration-near-decision-on-post-2014-afghan-troop-levels/2012/11/12/e18308ea-2d37-11e2-b631-2aad9d9c73ac_story.html

The US have promised not to abandon the Afghans like the Soviets did and continue to help fight the taliban. In addition, the new top commander, Joseph Dunford is demanding that more US troops stay on post 2014.

The risky business of training the Afghan army is incuring a lot of deaths so this war isn't ending anytime shortly!

That means Obama will have been involved in war throughout his entire 8 years of presidency, almost 2000 troops have died so far under him. I guess no chance of a second nobel peace prize then huh?

Manic Moran

In fairness, the only reason all the US troops left Iraq was the Iraqis asked them to leave. If the Afghans want them to hang around, and if the US believes that the Afghan forces do still need help, I'm not sure I see the problem.

Be like Nutella

The Afghan Dep Foreign minister was on Amonpour a few days ago and said he believed that the 2014 date is right for the combat troops to leave and that this exodus would bring MORE stability not less. He admitted there is a huge infiltration problem within the training Afghan force and that corruption is rife through the government. I suspect that when it comes to the time, it will be the US pushing to keep as many of that 20,000 figure as possible within Afghanistan primarily to retain as much footprint as possible in the region, dangerous or not and whether or not that crook Hamid Karzai wants them there or not. The Afghan force will not come of age for many years but will not even begin to take full responsibility once there is a large US presence still in country. They need to be appropriately rewarded, fighting fit and competent within the next 25 months to take on the remaining Taliban strongholds inside Afghanistan and the odds are against that so IMO the essentially recently reborn country would actually be better served if the US troops didn't name dates that are not supported by reality. War isn't something you can predict 2 years in advance. It's purely political games. 'I'm fighting terrorists with my drones and bringin the troops home at the same time' is the one-liner meme Obama's team want out there.