Karzai: Another 10 to 15 Years Should Do It
Speaking of a state of perpetual war:
“LONDON – Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned yesterday that foreign troops must stay in his country for another decade, as world powers agreed on an exit map including a plan to persuade Taliban fighters to disarm in exchange for jobs and homes…
“With regard to training and equipping the Afghan security forces, five to 10 years will be enough,” Karzai said. “With regard to sustaining them until Afghanistan is financially able to provide for our forces, the time will be extended to 10 to 15 years.”
…The conference was called to help the United States and its allies find a way out of the grinding Afghan war amid rising U.S. and NATO casualties and falling public support. NATO has agreed to accelerate the training of Afghan security forces and gradually transfer more combat responsibility to them.
Actually, Karzai is being very optimistic. The real time frame as to when “Afghanistan is financially able to provide” for their own forces is a bit longer. Like NEVER. The cost of maintaining the Afghan security forces at the levels being proposed by General McChrystal and the Obama administration is approximately $2 to $3 billion a year. This in a country whose entire annual budget is $600 million, and where the gross national product is the size of Boise Idaho’s.
In other words, it’s never gonna happen.
