White House Reiterates Demands for Karzai to Sign Troop Deal

Even though only yesterday it was reported that the Obama Administration was pretty well resigned to waiting for President Hamid Karzai to leave office and trying to get his successor to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) to continue the US occupation “through 2024 and beyond,” the old failed strategy of threatening Karzai seems alive and well.

White House press secretary Jay Carney went through the usual script today, insisting that the deal needs to be signed very soon or else the US might end the occupation entirely, and that “we’re not renegotiating it.”

The entire speech is made so often and virtually verbatim as to be a sort of ceremony in and of itself, giving lip-service to the “zero option” that Pentagon officials have repeatedly said is just for Karzai’s consumption and doesn’t represent actual, real policy plans.

The Obama Administration has known for years that it wants to occupy Afghanistan, certainly through the end of this term and essentially forever by most indications, and with Karzai out of office in two months, Carney will only get to deliver the speech at most a dozen or so more times before having to change to threatening his successor. Either way, by hook or by crook, the US occupation will continue.