Following up weekend reports that President Obama had “given up” on pressing Afghan President Hamid Karzai to sign a troop deal to continue the occupation, and was simply waiting the election of Karzai’s successor, President Obama is again ratcheting up the rhetoric.
President Obama called Karzai today, telling him that the US is planning a “full Afghan pullout” now, and the only thing that can change his mind is for Karzai to sign off on the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), which would keep US troops in Afghanistan “through 2024 and beyond.”
The White House also issued a public statement saying they’ve ordered the Pentagon to prepare for the “possibility” of withdrawing from Afghanistan, and said that the longer Karzai waits to sign the less occupation troops he’ll get.
The Pentagon has yet to address this, but has repeatedly thrown cold water on previous reports, saying they weren’t even considering the possibility of not occupying Afghanistan for years to come. The threats are so often made for Karzai’s benefit it isn’t clear if they are sincere at all.
And while officials are playing it up again today, over the weekend they confirmed talks with “frontrunners” in the April election about signing off on the deal, so it is exceedingly unlikely that Karzai’s refusal to sign the pact is really a deal-breaker.
yeah, right…
What about stationing Afghan troops in America? How would you like that?
I demand Afghan killer drone bases in eastern West Virginia, southern Maryland, and northern Virginia. …damn terrorists gotta come out of their bunkers sometime…. Oh yeah, and get the hell out of Afghanistan.
I hope Karzai quotes B'rer Rabbit – "Oh please don't throw me into that briar patch!"
Oh no! Pull out of Afghanistan? No, no, please Mr. Obama please don't do that! That would be too extreme!
More empty threats, let’s see if Karzai is going to take the bait.
In other words, we are threatening to end our illegal occupation? Maybe we can also threaten to stop blowing up civilian weddings and such… Ohh..the horror..
From a political perspective, Karzai's refusal to grant endless occupation is understandable. Since 1979, the country has been under foreign boots. The people are weary of nigh-time raids, drone attacks against children herding sheep and carrying a staff that on a grainy monitor may resemble a rifle and thereby induce attack, and last, but not least,: the US utilization of available copious amounts of opium/heroin to help with the costs associated with their war of occupation. The old adage "Yankee go Home" is particularly relevant is this so-called "war on terror."
I had a similar problem. For a week, every night these thugs would break into my house, beat me up, rape my wife, shoot my dog and trashed the place. Then they threaten to stop doing it.
Damn, that really put me on the spot.
Why don't you piss off rightaway, you bloody fascist dog?