While US officials have attempted to portray Afghan President Hamid Karzai as alone in his refusal to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), which extends US military occupation of the country “through 2024 and beyond,” he has significant company.
Afghan Senate Chairman Fazl Hadi Muslimyar says he opposes the BSA as well, saying that the partnership agreement the US and Afghanistan negotiated in 2011 was much better.
Much of that pact, which was signed by President Obama in 2012, never went public, but it did put 2024 as an end date for the occupation, something the BSA explicitly does not do.
That previous deal, to the extent the public was told anything about it, appeared to leave open a lot of controversial issues addressed in the BSA, which is likely why the US is so keen to have the BSA approved as the ultimate deal, since it gives them immunity for virtually everything they do in the country.
We don't need to be there…period. If this is really about the supposed pipeline, let Halliburton provide security – they've more money to spend on it than the USG.