This makes sense. After all, the jihadis who infiltrate the Afghan military and police forces will need targets. And the increasingly hostile Karzai and his successor will need those bags of no-strings-attached CIA cash still delivered regularly to their offices. “U.S. to keep 9,800 troops in Afghanistan,” by Julie Pace, Associated Press, May 27, 2014:
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will seek to keep 9,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan after the war formally ends later this year and then will withdraw most of those forces by 2016, senior administration officials said Tuesday.
Obama’s decision is largely in line with what military commanders have been seeking and will allow the president to fully end the American-led military effort by the time he leaves office.
The two-year plan is contingent on the Afghan government signing a bilateral security agreement with the U.S. While current Afghan President Hamid Karzai has declined to sign the agreement, U.S. officials are confident that either of the candidates seeking to replace him would give his approval.
The plan calls for the U.S. military to draw down from its current force of 32,000 to 9,800 by the start of next year. Those troops would be dispatched throughout Afghanistan and focus on counterterrorism missions and training Afghan security forces. They would not be engaged in combat missions.
Over the course of next year, the number of troops would be cut in half and consolidated in the capital of Kabul and at Bagram Air Field, the main U.S. base in Afghanistan. Those remaining forces would largely be withdrawn by the end of 2016, with fewer than 1,000 remaining behind to staff a security office in Kabul.
The American forces would likely be bolstered by a few thousand NATO troops. The total NATO presence, including U.S. troops, is expected to be around 12,000 at the start of next year….
jihad3tracker says
Karzai’s “bags of cash” cooperation method at least has the virtue of honesty.
And Obama’s hands drip with the blood of our military young men & women.
Let me remind JW readers here that I am a lifelong Democrat — who of course long ago discovered that my party has been completely corrupted by Leftist privilege guilt.
But all is not lost.. Stay tuned for a development in our party that will make all Hell break loose for the pathological liar Hillary Clinton and her heir-apparent hopes go.
TG Browning says
What? You think Hillary Clinton is not going to go along with Obama’s leaving troops through 2016? Why? As near as I can tell, the vast majority of demo congress critters seem to be backing Obama’s Afghan War Lite.
Browning>>>
Paleologos says
Pray for these brave troops.
Targets is the right term, Robert … and brutally outnumbered.
Look what kind of protection this shit-for-brains-administration provided in Benghazi.
… The two-year plan is contingent on the Afghan government signing a bilateral security agreement with the U.S. While current Afghan President Hamid Karzai has declined to sign the agreement, U.S. officials are confident that either of the candidates seeking to replace him would give his approval. …
So big, fat what?
Of what value is any agreement signed by muslims?
R/
Paleologos
Charli Main says
” of what value is any agreement signed with Muslims ?”
NONE WHATSOEVER.
Muslims are commanded to lie, cheat and deceive infidels at every opportunity in the cause of furthering Islam.
as other posters have said before me—-NEVER TRUST A MUSLIM-EVER.!!!
Thomas says
Nothing like letting the enemy know our exact plans and troop numbers with a time table. Better order more body bags, were gonna need them .
Walter Sieruk says
One thing is for sure. Which is that whoever is the head of the government in Afghanistan wil be a fool he attempts to form a” peace alliance” with the fiends who compose the Taiban. For the Taliban have worked very hard to prove by their own actions thatthey are a group of ruthless brutal thugs and would only keep their words in anything that they might promise only as long as it would suite them and to longer. As it is written in THE ART OF WAR by Sun Tzu “We cannot enter into an alliance with neighboring princes untill we are acquainted withtheir designs.” To put this in a more current and updated way, it may be said “We cannot enter into an alliance with the Taliban until we are acquainted with their designs.”
With the Taliban we all may be sure that their intentions are evil.