"Karzai relents on expelling private guards; Agrees to let some remain until February" by Deb Riechmann, Associated Press / October 28, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai agreed yesterday to push back his deadline for expelling private security guards from Afghanistan, a concession the United States and other countries considered essential to preventing billions of dollars worth of development and reconstruction projects from shutting down....
Related: US Official on Afghanistan: “We might as well go home.''
Good idea.
International officials spent several days in intense negotiations with the president, and US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton weighed in with a phone call asking Karzai to reconsider....
Karzai has complained for years that many private guards commit human rights abuses, pay protection money to the Taliban, and undercut the country’s national security forces by offering higher wages and better living conditions. Nations providing aid to Afghanistan, however, question whether Afghan security forces — who they say are poorly trained, rife with corruption, and stretched thin fighting insurgents — will be able to take on the work of the private guards.
See: Handing the Joint Over in Afghanistan
The Afghans would be better off under Taliban rule!
Contractors say they will not be able to find insurers if they are forced to give up private security. Some have been winding down projects early because they fear they will not be able to protect their workers....
When can we WIND DOWN this WAR EARLY?
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Related: Karzai Closes Down US Contractors
Also see: Iran Interfering in Afghanistan
Oh, yeah? How many mercenaries have they put in there?
