Just f***ing leave already, will ya'?
"Afghanistan wins major US ally status" by Graham Bowley and Matthew Rosenberg | New York Times, July 08, 2012
KABUL — The United States declared Afghanistan a major non-NATO ally on Saturday, with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton personally delivering the news of Afghanistan’s entry into a club that includes Israel, Japan, Pakistan, and other close Asian and Middle Eastern allies....
‘‘Please know that the United States will be your friend,’’ she told President Hamid Karzai. ‘‘We are not even imagining abandoning Afghanistan. Quite the opposite. We are building a partnership with Afghanistan that will endure far into the future.’’
The designation by the United States grants a country special privileges, like access to excess US military supplies and training, Clinton said.
Clinton made a short stop in Kabul en route to Tokyo, where an international conference will be held to raise money to support the Afghan government after 2014.
International donors will pledge $16 billion in aid for Afghanistan over the next four years in hopes of stabilizing the country after most foreign combat troops return home, the Associated Press reported, citing a US envoy. The money will come with conditions to ensure it doesn’t fall victim to Afghan corruption and mismanagement.
This as EUROPEAN and AMERICAN CITIZENS are TOLD YOU MUST HAVE AUSTERITY!
The formal announcement was expected at a Tokyo conference attended by about 70 countries and organizations....
The US allotment for Afghanistan is $2.3 billion this year.
Is that on top of the $4 billion for security that shoots at us?
In a separate statement Saturday, the State Department said Afghanistan would also be able to obtain loans of equipment from the United States and financing for leasing equipment....
I don't even like the words financing and loan these days. What I see when I see those words now are banker fraud and swindle.
Iraq was never given the status of a major ally, and US troops withdrew last year.
Iraq ain't an ally. They kicked us out and then went to Shi'ite (or so I've been told by my instrument of Jewish war propaganda called a newspaper).
Afghanistan’s designation as a formal ally was the latest in a series of recent American moves that have eased Afghan fears of being abandoned at the end of NATO’s mission in 2014.
Related: "The Afghan people don’t want us there"
Also see: AmeriKa Has Lost Afghanistan
Yeah, we KNEW THAT A LONG TIME AGO!
The moves also appear to have already yielded one dividend for the United States: Karzai has not recently lashed out at his backers, as he has in the past, at one point calling Americans ‘‘demons.’’
On Saturday, he welcomed Clinton, calling her ‘‘my old American friend’’ in his remarks....
Karzai offered what he said was an old saying in Persian: ‘‘When a friend is alive, they will meet again.’’
He said it to her in Persian?
US and Afghan officials say they now must turn to working out a deal that would keep a residual US force here to continue training Afghan soldiers and tracking down insurgents after 2014.
Yeah, we AIN'T LEAVING no matter what they call it.
Talks on the arrangement have not yet begun, US officials say. Estimates of the number of troops that could stay vary from as little as 10,000 to as many as 25,000 or 30,000.
But Clinton reiterated Saturday that Washington did envision keeping US troops in Afghanistan, where they would provide the kind of air power and surveillance capabilities needed to give Afghan forces an edge over the Taliban....
In other words, NOTHING WILL BE CHANGING AT ALL!
At the US Embassy, she praised the work done by civilians in the war.
Meaning all the CIA agents.
State Department officials said that her remarks were intended to rebut what many in the State Department consider unfair criticism of their work in Afghanistan, where they have often been portrayed as not carrying their weight when compared with the military.
They haven't killed as many.
But US soldiers and civilians alike have faced one common struggle: assuaging Afghan fears of abandonment.
Yeah, Afghans are saying leave, but they really mean stay. They are like every rape victim you have ever met.
Many here fear that the country is headed toward a repeat of the early 1990s, when the fall of the Soviet-backed government, coupled with a US pullback from the region, left Afghanistan mired in a brutal civil war.
The Taliban grew out of the chaos, and they quickly took over much of the country.
Related:
"The U.S. government was well aware of the Taliban's reactionary program, yet it chose to back their rise to power in the mid-1990s. The creation of the Taliban was "actively encouraged by the ISI and the CIA," according to Selig Harrison, an expert on U.S. relations with Asia. "The United States encouraged Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to support the Taliban, certainly right up to their advance on Kabul," adds respected journalist Ahmed Rashid. When the Taliban took power, State Department spokesperson Glyn Davies said that he saw "nothing objectionable" in the Taliban's plans to impose strict Islamic law, and Senator Hank Brown, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Near East and South Asia, welcomed the new regime: "The good part of what has happened is that one of the factions at last seems capable of developing a new government in Afghanistan." "The Taliban will probably develop like the Saudis. There will be Aramco [the consortium of oil companies that controlled Saudi oil], pipelines, an emir, no parliament and lots of Sharia law. We can live with that," said another U.S. diplomat in 1997."
What more need be typed, readers? Newspaper left it out.
Clinton made clear that she was also sending a message to the Taliban.
The alliance and other US commitments to Afghanistan ‘‘should make clear to the Taliban that they cannot wait us out,’’ she said.
They ALREADY HAVE!!
‘‘They can renounce international terrorism and commit to an Afghan peace process, or they will face the increasingly capable Afghan national security forces, backed by the United States.’’
I thought we were leavi.... right.
Related: Afghan local police group deserts to Taliban
Has she been drinking again?
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"Donors worldwide pledge $16b for needs of Afghan civilians" by Jane Perlez | New York Times July 09, 2012
TOKYO — An international conference meeting here on Sunday pledged $16 billion for civilian needs in Afghanistan, but for the first time insisted that the Afghanistan government reduce corruption in order to receive all the money.
Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, appealed to the representatives of more than 70 countries at the conference not to abandon his country as the United States and NATO troops begin withdrawing next year.
The donors said Karzai must be more accountable about how the money is disbursed, and the use of the aid would be closely monitored to ensure it is not wasted through corruption or mismanagement.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that the lives of ordinary Afghans must improve.
“That must include fighting corruption, improving governance, strengthening the rule of law, increasing accessibility to economic opportunity for all Afghans, specifically for women,’’ she said in addressing the conference.
Also Sunday, a bomb in eastern Afghanistan killed six NATO service members, on a day where 29 people died from roadside bombs and insurgent attacks, the Associated Press reported....
They were US troops.
Yeah, those roads are a hell of a lot safer.
The Obama administration has asked Congress to provide $2.5 billion for Afghanistan’s civilian needs for 2013, US officials said. The United States is the largest donor of all the countries contributing to Afghanistan’s reconstruction.
Is that on top of the other $2.3 billion on top of the $4 billion for security that shoots at us?
In his comments, Karzai assured those attending the conference that his country would try to improve security and become more accountable.
‘‘We will fight corruption with strong resolve wherever it occurs, and ask the same of our international partners,’’ Karzai told the donors, according to media reports. ‘‘Together we must stop the practices that feed corruption or undermine the legitimacy and effectiveness of national institutions.’’
A follow-up meeting has also been scheduled in Britain in 2014 to monitor how the aid has been distributed and to make sure that it is not being mismanaged or diverted.
Like the We$t is as clean as the driven snow when it comes to corruption. Heck, the guys who stole the money are their agents and assets!
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I left early, sorry.
Next Day Update:
"Afghan forces repositioned as US continues drawdown" by Deb Riechmann | Associated Press, July 23, 2012
KABUL — The top commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan said Sunday that foreign troops will fight through 2014 when the NATO combat mission ends — and beyond.
Then the COMBAT is NOT REALLY ENDING, is it?
In a wide-ranging interview, US General John Allen said this summer’s offensive operations were aimed at pushing insurgents farther from population centers, expanding the security zone around Kabul, the capital, and getting more Afghan forces into the lead in the east, including along Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan.
Yeah, right. How is that Kabul offensive going since I haven't seen a word since?
Related(?): Villagers held hostage in Pakistan
In addition to repositioning Afghan and foreign forces on the battleground, military and police advisers are moving in to work with Afghan forces going forward.
On Sunday, a person wearing an Afghan national security force uniform turned his weapon against civilian contractors with the US-led military coalition, killing three.
Ah, the long road ahead!
NATO said the attack occurred in western Afghanistan but disclosed few other details. The gunman was killed during the attack . No further information about the civilians who died was released.
Five NATO service members also were killed in roadside bombings the past two days. Three of the attacks occurred in the east and two in the south. NATO provided no further details....
The NATO mission has focused on population centers, and this summer troops are going after insurgents outside the cities....
Excess military equipment and materiel also has started flowing out of the country....
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