Despite repeated pleas from US President Barack Obama to conclude the war in Afghanistan by the end of 2014, a leading official with the State Department tells reporters this week that the United States is readying plans that will leave boots on the ground for the unforeseeable future, perhaps long after the Obama-insisted deadline comes and goes.
Marc Grossman, the State Department’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, reportedly told the press on Tuesday that upcoming negotiations in the region will iron out how and who will be left overseas after 2014 to allegedly engage in counterterrorism efforts and assist Afghans with military training. …
Grossman adds that the State Dept. has already held meetings to discuss “how we will manage our forces going forward in Afghanistan,” and now must begin negotiations to figure out a number of factors, including who and how many troops will be left behind.via RT.
Is anyone really surprised?
We need to simply bring everyone home. Now. Just pick-up and pull-out. The entire country has been a war zone for the last 40-50 years; actually since the dawn of time itself. We simply do not belong there. It’s serving no national foreign policy objective.
Al-Qaida just moves the base of operation into Africa and they use the Afghan war as a reason to bring more young loyalist into the fold. Our actions there are counter-productive. It’s not worth a single human life to try to change the geo-politics of that region.