{"id":38506,"date":"2013-11-19T14:45:35","date_gmt":"2013-11-19T19:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=38506"},"modified":"2013-11-19T15:05:49","modified_gmt":"2013-11-19T20:05:49","slug":"us-afghan-agreement-us-has-open-ended-committment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=38506","title":{"rendered":"US-Afghan agreement; US has open-ended committment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pinto Nag sends us a link to NBC News<\/a> which reports that the US and Afghanistan have reached an agreement for continued US presence in the country “for many years” while we continue to shell out for Afghan forces’ payroll;<\/p>\n

Taken as a whole, the document describes a basic US-Afghan exchange. Afghanistan would allow Washington to operate military bases to train Afghan forces and conduct counter-terrorism operations against al-Qaeda after the current mission ends in 2014. For that foothold in this volatile mountain region wedged between Pakistan and Iran, the United States would agree to sustain and equip Afghanistan’s large security force, which the government in Kabul currently cannot afford. The deal, according to the text, would take effect on January 1, 2015 and \u201cshall remain in force until the end of 2024 and beyond.\u201d It could be terminated by either Washington or Kabul with two years advance written notice.<\/p>\n

There is however what US officials believe is a contradiction in the July draft, which would effectively ask American troops to provide training and confront al-Qaeda from the confines of bases. While it says operations against al-Qaeda may be necessary, it also says US troops will not be allowed to make arrests or enter Afghan homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo detention or arrest shall be carried out by the United States forces. The United States forces shall not search any homes or other real estate properties,\u201d it says.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yeah, I’m pretty sure that the media and the opposition party wouldn’t have allowed the Bush Administration to forge a document that would cost billions with no end in sight without raising a loud and constant stink. Remember during the 2008 campaign, the press and Democrats were screaming because they thought that John McCain wanted to stay in Iraq “forever”? So where are those voices now?<\/p>\n

ADDED:<\/strong> I don’t know what to make of this, sent to us by “Ohio”; Fox News<\/a> reports that the New York Times says that part of the security deal is a letter from our President to the Afghan people “Acknowledging mistakes” during our war against terror. <\/p>\n

The New York Times, citing a spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai, reported that Secretary of State John Kerry proposed the letter in a conversation with Karzai. <\/p>\n

Karzai asked that Obama sign it, and Kerry reportedly agreed. The letter apparently helped them reach a tentative deal authorizing U.S. raids on Afghan homes in certain circumstances, which had been an area of disagreement. <\/p>\n

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, at Tuesday’s daily press briefing in Washington, would not confirm or deny the letter when asked by Fox News. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Proposed by Kerry – this is not my shocked face.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pinto Nag sends us a link to NBC News which reports that the US and Afghanistan … US-Afghan agreement; US has open-ended committment<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-barack-obama","category-terror-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38506\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}