Speaking today at a NATO conference in Mons, Belgium, top German General Manfred Lange said he is “extraordinarily confident” that NATO will complete its withdrawal from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
But just because the dictionary definition of “withdrawal” would indicate that NATO wouldn’t be occupying the nation after that point doesn’t mean they’re not going to keep a major military footprint there going forward, as Gen. Lange says that NATO will keep “around 15,000” troops there from 2015 on.
Lange says the troops would provide “training and technical support,” but did not indicate if this figure was independent of whatever troops the US plans to keep. The US is in open negotiations to keep an occupation force in Afghanistan through 2024.
Exactly how long beyond 2014 NATO envisions keeping troops in Afghanistan is unclear, but last week German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said he wanted to see NATO commit to supporting Karzai through at least 2025.
You just don't understand. in Washington, withdrawal means bascially, yea ain't really going anywhere but we want the new York Times to think we are since they pretty much accept uncritically everything we say.
Welcome to South Korea in Central Asia guys.
But the people in Afghanistan are not the people in South Korea.
Yeah you are correct
Two US soldiers died in an IED attack on Sunday, Dec. 11 in Kunar province. Seven US soldiers have died so far in December. Four hundred US soldiers have died in combat in Afghanistan so far in 2011.
And, of course, that most definitely does NOT include all the civilian contractor "security" personnel. People need to stop thinking in terms of the number of "boots on the ground", and start asking what the actual, annual cost in dollars will be.
NATO is establishing military bases on the borders of Iran for the Super Mario of interventions. 15,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan provide a large contingent of invasion forces to destroy one of the nations that Israel opposes.
There's no doubt that to Americans the word 'leaving' has multiple meaning. In fact, leaving really means 'never leaving.'
It's like something out of 1984, like War is Peace! The America uses 1984 as a training manual for totalitarianism, doesn't it?
http://www.dangerouscreation.com
Hell yes, we're leaving! It just takes a while to do it right. Think of Japan or South Korea.