• Potential agreement could extend US soldiers' stay in Afghanistan to 2024
    10 replies, posted
[QUOTE]WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Wednesday that the United States and Afghanistan had finalized the wording of a bilateral security agreement that would allow for a lasting American troop presence through 2024 and set the stage for billions of dollars of international assistance to keep flowing to the government in Kabul. The deal, which will now be presented for approval by an Afghan grand council of elders starting on Thursday, came after days of brinkmanship by Afghan officials and two direct calls from Mr. Kerry to President Hamid Karzai, including one on Wednesday before the announcement. Just the day before, a senior aide to Mr. Karzai had said the Afghan leader would not approve an agreement unless President Obama sent a letter acknowledging American military mistakes during the 12-year war. But on Wednesday, Mr. Kerry emphatically insisted that a deal was reached with no American apology forthcoming. “President Karzai didn’t ask for an apology. There was no discussion of an apology,” Mr. Kerry said. “I mean, it’s just not even on the table.” After a war that stands as the longest in American history, the security agreement defines a training and counterterrorism mission in Afghanistan lasting at least [B]10 more years[/B] and involving [B]8,000 to 12,000 troops[/B], mostly American.[/QUOTE] [url=http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/21/world/asia/afghan-pact-kerry-apology-.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&hp&]You're fucking shitting me.[/url]
What, the actual fuck. [b]Why?[/b]
Top comment from reddit about this: [QUOTE=CarbonFiber_Funk]Has anyone actually read the article? Or is are the top-voted comments based purely on the title alone without a second thought to the diplomacy at work. Don't be shocked, but much of what I'm about to say is echoing the article...because, you know, I read it...and interpreted it... [B]The deal is to allow for a 8-12k troop deployment in the region until 2024 officially for counter-terrorist and training purposes.[/B] There are currently some 63k there now with the bulk of them scheduled to leave by the end of 2014. Now, think of it this way. The US has spent billions of dollars and thrown thousands of lives into the grinder and most people expect to just simply leave without a second look back. You can't do that. That's not how one handles the responsibility of occupying such a region for as long as the US has. By straight up leaving we take those lives and essentially declare that their sacrifice and hard work was all for not. Now at this point, and in an ideal world, I would like to hope that the remaining troop agreement would result in a deterrence to any troublemakers looking to make effective use of a power vacuum left by departing American forces. 8-12k troops. About one-sixth that are there now. A pittance compared to what used to be there years ago. They aren't going to be garden variety infantry and support personnel either. [B]Best part is, even though the Afghan government will have zero say over legal matters regarding American troop behavior, they will be able to prosecute non-military personnel. In other words, contractors, war profiteers, people like who caused such a stir in late Iraq will be on their own if they decide to become careless.[/B] ~(Quote)Why should we (Americans) continue to throw money and lives into the grinder when we so openly oppose it? Its not our problem anymore...(Quote)~ Truth be told, I do don't know what the best solution is to this massive mistake that we as a country have made. But I remember 12 years ago when everyone snarled for payback. I was a kid, in middle school. I knew nothing, and my opinions are far different now then what they were. I can't say that remaining is the most honorable or respectful thing to do right now, but I do know that when the American populace decided to support a war effort, it made a conscience decision to regard that action as something with consequences. In other words, a responsibility. As far as I see it, the vast number of troops are still scheduled to leave by the start of 2015. There are a select few people who will, voluntarily I will remind you, choose to remain and attempt to make sure our mistake was 100% for not.[/QUOTE]
Not surprised. Something was leaked last week saying we'd be in there until 2024. Also, the media needs to get its head straight that this isnt a [I]war[/I]. Congress never declared it as a war. They authorized military measures in Iraq/Afghanistan but never war... and this ended in 2011. So now its just the US and its military doing what it does because it can. We need to get the fuck out of there.
I must say, I'm impressed. This'll be the single longest sustained war the US has ever been involved in. Guess those defense contractors are putting pressure on government.
[QUOTE=areolop;42944546]Congress never declared it as a war. They authorized military measures in Iraq/Afghanistan but never war... and this ended in 2011.[/QUOTE] The last formal declaration of War by the United states was for WWII. Congress approved both the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan, but realistically you can't really have a formal declaration of war against a losely banded group of people. The so called "War on Terror" is a fight against an ideology.
Keeping 12,000 troops in a country as military advisers isn't fighting a war. We have three times that many in Japan alone. We have more people in Kuwait and Germany. They're not combat personnel, they're there to train the troops and provide advising to the government. Nobody ever said we were going to just disappear overnight altogether and leave the Afghan forces to deal with the Taliban. Read the article.
[QUOTE=FlandersNed;42944536]Top comment from reddit about this:[/QUOTE] Training and CT purposes? I'm okay with this, the locals need to be able to defend themselves from the taliban and others like them.
[QUOTE=rovar;42944533]What, the actual fuck. [b]Why?[/b][/QUOTE] We will never be able to leave the Middle East. If we do, the people we forced out will rush right back in. The people we've been fighting have this whole notion of being unconquerable due to the British and the Soviets and such.
holy shit
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