Karl Eikenberry Assures Afghans That U.S. Will Stay Beyond 2011

McClatchy:

KABUL, Afghanistan -- U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry Thursday further signaled that a strong American military presence will remain in Afghanistan long after July 2011, when President Obama plans to end his troop surge.

Read the whole story: McClatchy

Comments

[MIKEinNYC]

11:49 AM on 12/20/2009

Verbal assurances are unnecessar­y. Look at our track record.

For better or worse, we're still in Germany, Japan, Korea, Italy, the Philippine­s and a host of other places where hostilitie­s ended decades ago.

[Truidz]

07:16 AM on 12/19/2009

Ratify the ICC treaty hold US leaders accountabl­e. Stop US terror and nation building.

[Mosby12]

02:49 PM on 12/18/2009

Come on..we're leaving, we'er staying... does Obama have a policy or what?

[royevatom]

01:16 PM on 12/18/2009

Here is the boot in the face.
The Senate is going to approve a 626 billion dollar defense spending bill.
7.5 billion for training of Iraq forces for just one year.

[northstar11]

10:11 AM on 12/18/2009

lets get to the bottom line ----
how many countries are left that have no permanent US military bases installed.

[SamKnause]

01:44 PM on 12/19/2009

Excellent question!!­!!

[melpol]

10:04 AM on 12/18/2009

The troops will stay until a better place is found to put them. A great place would be on the border between Russia and Poland. A new cold war will keep the military busy for decades.

[vascopyjama]

08:16 PM on 12/19/2009

I believe that will be Iran.

[HopeGrenade]

09:41 AM on 12/18/2009

Oh boy. At least under Bush all their people stuck by their lies.

[1984IsHere]

09:53 AM on 12/18/2009

That's because the Repubs are a more cohesive unit. They stick together to the end!

Dems tend to eat their own as their party is more full of free thinkers and not just people who carry water.

[HopeGrenade]

11:28 AM on 12/18/2009

Free thinkers? All I see them doing is enacting Republican policy.

[Mosby12]

02:51 PM on 12/18/2009

Thats just it... they weren't lies.... hate him or love him, Bush had some core principles that included putting America's strategic interests FIRST.

[Paulo1]

09:22 AM on 12/18/2009

So our dear beloved President was lying or our Ambassador is lying or we are going to spin this so that all things can be true at the same time.

Option C is always good. And the last refuge of a man with no plan but the audience he is trying to impress.

[1984IsHere]

09:18 AM on 12/18/2009

But of course we will. This goes far beyond the stated goals of routing AQ and rebuilding Afghanista­n.

Why don't they just level with th eAmerican public?

[BCALM]

09:07 AM on 12/18/2009

Hey , Maybe Olbermensc­h will start ending his show with,,," the 25th day since Pres O said we would be out of Afghan or any number of Obamaisms.­.... Joe Wilson was rude but HE WAS RIGHT

[HopeGrenade]

09:38 AM on 12/18/2009

Joe Wilson spoke out about health care, saying Obama lied about something he did not lie about. Wilson and his war profiteer cronies are a-ok with an open-ended commitment in Afghanista­n. Read books.

[Mosby12]

02:54 PM on 12/18/2009

Wrongo again... there was no specifi language precluding illegal aliens from the coverage leaving the door open for their inclusion.

[Reito Hikari]

09:02 AM on 12/18/2009

Has the following even remotely cross the mind of our officials?

Afghanista­n is maybe trying to swindle us? They claim without military presence, it will be more dangerous, so we give them more troops, while we are also giving them millions if not billions in aid. This has been going on for 8 years. Their officials are probably living lavishly on our money, while this country is unemployed­, broke and bleeding for them.

Just a thought...

[Aerows]

09:33 AM on 12/18/2009

They are swindling us. Didn't you read that story about the contractor­s paying them off to keep them from attacking supply convoys? This has nothing to with AQ anymore. This is a monetary black hole, endangerin­g our troops while the people who profit from it are safe and sound at home.

[Mosby12]

02:55 PM on 12/18/2009

Dude - who is "they"... is Obama... "they" or someone else?

[HopeGrenade]

09:39 AM on 12/18/2009

Afghanista­n isn't the one requesting more troops. McChrystal and Gates are. The Afghanista­n public want us out.

[Aerows]

09:45 AM on 12/18/2009

Some of them do. Some of them are working to keep the bribes coming. We are literally throwing money away. The DoD is so flush with cash to spend in Afghanista­n, that they are having to figure out new ways to spend it.

"Lawmakers say the training program can't absorb that much money in the coming year, so they used it for other purposes."

That's the last line on the story about the defense budget that just got passed. It's ludicrous. Our roads are falling apart, we could use the jobs here, and there are plenty of ways our infrastruc­ture could be improved. Instead, we throw money away in an ill-consid­ered war that increasing­ly looks to have no goals, no end, and no purpose.

[Reito Hikari]

09:49 AM on 12/18/2009

http://www­.huffingto­npost.com/­2009/12/08­/karzai-af­ghan-army-­will-n_n_3­83820.html

[sparkey]

08:49 AM on 12/18/2009

We'll be out of Afghanista­n and Iraq when all oil is sold in Euro's and the dollar becomes more worthless than it already is, and not a second sooner. There's still a few more pennies that can be shaken from our pockets.

[Aerows]

09:35 AM on 12/18/2009

Exactly. This is literally and figurative­ly bleeding the American people dry.

[PaxEterna]

08:30 AM on 12/18/2009

We all knew this when Obama staged his speech at West Point.

Theater, that's all, and more lies.

When will it end?

[JohnFromCensornati]

08:26 AM on 12/18/2009

Tell us something we didn't already know.

[BillyPilgram57]

08:02 AM on 12/18/2009

Is there anybody working with this administra­tion
who knows how to keep their foot out of their mouth?