After “withdrawal” U.S. will keep 9 Afghan bases

Thu, 09 May 2013 16:30:00 +0000

The concept of military withdrawal -- especially from Afghanistan -- has long been a flimsy one. Let alone the presence of contractors that are not counted among official troop numbers, withdrawal from Afghanistan has never meant that the country would be totally without a U.S. military presence. On Thursday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced that the U.S. hoped to maintain nine military bases across Afghanistan -- a large deployment that stands at odds with claims of a more robust security handover from U.S. to Afghan forces.

"We can agree to give them the bases – them staying on after 2014 is for the good of Afghanistan," Karzai said in a speech at Kabul University. "The condition is that they bring peace and security and take action quickly … on the basic strengthening of Afghanistan, helping the economy of Afghanistan."

Conflicting reports on Afghanistan troop withdrawal

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:20:00 +0000

BRUSSELS -- Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and his NATO counterparts are considering leaving 8,000 to 12,000 troops in Afghanistan after 2014, but a dispute arose Friday between the U.S. and German defense officials over whether that contingent would be an international force or an American one.

The conflicting accounts came as NATO defense ministers gathered here to discuss the endgame of the 11-year-old war in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama has said that the last combat troops will leave Afghanistan on Dec. 31, 2014, leaving the bulk of the country's security in the hands of the Afghans.

German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere told reporters Panetta had informed him at the Brussels meeting that the United States would leave between 8,000 and 10,000 troops in the war-torn country at the end of 2014.

But Panetta, speaking to reporters later, called de Maiziere's comments inaccurate.

Panetta, who will leave Obama's Cabinet when his successor is confirmed, told reporters that he and the NATO partners instead talked about ranges of options for the post-2014 troop force. And he said the figures reflected contributions that other nations would make, in addition to the United States.

Salon.com > troop withdrawal

After “withdrawal” U.S. will keep 9 Afghan bases

Conflicting reports on Afghanistan troop withdrawal