NATO: Afghanistan Will Need ‘Decades’ of Additional Support

Afghans Expected to Need $7 Billion Annually Just for Military

Top NATO official Sir Simon Gass indicated today the alliance plans a more or less open-ended commitment to funding the Karzai government, saying he believed the nation will require “decades” of support beyond 2014.

Sir Simon insisted that NATO would have to learn the mistake from the failed Soviet occupation — apparently not the “don’t occupy Afghanistan” mistake. Instead, he sees the mistake coming three years after the Soviet troops left, when they withdrew funding from the Najibullah regime.

And there appears to be no chance of that happening here, with the Karzai government expected to be on the dole more or less forever, needing $7 billion annually in foreign funding just to prop up their military.

That funding is going to come in part from NATO, but the vast majority of it will be coming directly from the US, where the Obama Administration seems to have no problem pressing for an occupation through at least 2024. US Officials have argued throwing massive funding at the Afghan military annually is not only sound policy but is America’s “long-term solution” to the war.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.