Afghanistan War: US, Afghanistan Finalize Strategic Pact

KABUL, Afghanistan — The U.S. and Afghanistan reached a deal Sunday on a long-delayed strategic partnership agreement that ensures Americans will provide military and financial support to the Afghan people for at least a decade beyond 2014, the deadline for most foreign forces to withdraw.

The pact is key to the U.S. exit strategy in Afghanistan because it establishes guidelines for any American forces who remain after the withdrawal deadline and for financial help to the impoverished country and its security forces.

For the Afghan government, it is also a way to show its people that their U.S. allies are not just walking away.

"Our goal is an enduring partnership with Afghanistan that strengthens Afghan sovereignty, stability and prosperity and that contributes to our shared goal of defeating al-Qaida and its extremist affiliates," said U.S. Embassy spokesman Gavin Sundwall. "We believe this agreement supports that goal."

After 10 years of U.S.-led war, insurgents linked to the Taliban and al-Qaida remain a threat and as recently as a week ago launched a large-scale attack on the capital Kabul and three other cities.

The draft agreement was worked out and initialed by Afghan National Security Adviser Rangin Dadfar Spanta and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker. It must still be reviewed in both countries and signed afterward by the Afghan and American presidents.

U.S. forces have already started pulling out of Afghanistan, and the majority of combat troops are scheduled to depart by the end of 2014. But the U.S. is expected to maintain a large presence in the country for years after, including special forces, military trainers and government-assistance programs.

The agreement is both an achievement and a relief for both sides, coming after months of turmoil that seemed to put the entire alliance in peril. It shows that the two governments are still committed to working together and capable of coming to some sort of understanding.

"The document finalized today provides a strong foundation for the security of Afghanistan, the region and the world and is a document for the development of the region," Spanta said in a statement issued by President Hamid Karzai's office.

Neither Afghan nor U.S. officials would comment on the details of the agreement. A Western official familiar with the negotiations said it outlines a strategic partnership for 10 years beyond 2014.

Reaching any agreement is likely to be seen as a success given more than a year and a half of negotiations during which the entire effort appeared in danger of falling apart multiple times.

Since the beginning of the year, U.S.-Afghan relations have been strained by an Internet video of American Marines urinating on the corpses of presumed Taliban fighters, by Quran burnings at a U.S. base that sparked days of deadly protests and by the alleged killing spree by a U.S. soldier in a southern Afghan village.

Tensions were further heightened by a spate of turncoat attacks by Afghan security forces on their international counterparts.

White House National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said President Barack Obama expects to sign the document before a NATO summit in Chicago next month, meeting the deadline set by the two sides. Many had started to worry in recent weeks that Karzai and Obama would miss that goal as talks dragged on and Karzai continued to announce new demands for the document.

Much of the disagreement was about how to handle activities that the Afghan government saw as threatening its sovereignty, in particular, night raids and the detention of Afghan citizens by international forces. Those two major issues were resolved earlier this year in separate memorandums of understanding.

But closed-door talks continued for weeks after those side-deals were signed. And then as recently as last week, Karzai said that he wanted the agreement to include a dollar figure for funding for the Afghan security forces – a demand that would be hard for the Americans to sign off on given the need for congressional approval for funding. U.S. officials have said previously that they expected the document to address economic and development support for Afghanistan more generally.

The final document is likely to be short on specifics. U.S. officials involved in the negotiations have said previously that the strategic partnership will provide a framework for future relations, but that details of how U.S. forces operate in the country will come in a later agreement.

The initialing ceremony means that the text of the document is now locked in. But the countries will have to go through their own internal review processes, Sundwall said.

"For the United States, that will mean interagency review, consultation with Congress as appropriate and final review by the president," Sundwall said.

In Afghanistan, the agreement will have to be approved by parliament. The Afghan foreign minister will brief Afghan lawmakers about the document Monday, the Afghan president's statement said.

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Comments

[pinetarred]

07:47 AM on 04/24/2012

They (both parties) have handed us the spending is making us safer!! Making us safer from what? The cuts to American citizens? The outsourced jobs? Exactly how does it benefit America? This lie they keep telling!

[Cleverboots]

08:23 PM on 04/23/2012

Note to Moderators: There was nothing wrong with my post and no reason to pull it. You just disagree with my point of view and that's not moderating-it's CENSORSHIP. Bet you won't print this either.

[Cleverboots]

08:16 PM on 04/23/2012

Military AND financial support until 2024? Barack Obama has a lot of nerve committing our Country to this continuing farce from which we will continue to lose soldiers and money and gain NOTHING. Too bad Jon Huntsman is out of the race.

[James B Hixson]

04:54 PM on 04/23/2012

VOTE RON PAUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[James B Hixson]

04:49 PM on 04/23/2012

Not to fear, reality will bite and we won't be able to afford to honor any agreements with any country. Until it does, the U.S. will continue to spend itself into oblivion and, more unemployment will continue causing the economy to sink even further, and the bills will keep going up. Eventually, credit ratings of the country will plummet and we will have to leave. This will happen in less than 2 years. Trust me.

[redcoat]

01:29 PM on 04/23/2012

And everyone in Afghanistan gets Obama care when we leave

[dkandycrown]

01:09 PM on 04/23/2012

This war started before Iraq and yet we are out of Iraq. We should have been out of this country long before Iraq, but it seems like Mr. Obama just wants to keep going on with this very corrupt government, which will be costing us billions of dollars in tax money.

[Liban CZ]

11:42 AM on 04/23/2012

WHY would anybody make a pact with Afghanistan and Karzai? WHY?

[czmars]

10:45 AM on 04/23/2012

barack hussein obama says the bluewhitemarble get the hell out of afghanistan period. stop policing other countries and nations. your economy and people need more help than afghans do. and for what so you may control and continue the warmachine mayhem, and, for profit. 15 trillion+ in the red . re-build your own nation infrastructure dude. clean waterways and soil contamination. expand new green technologies, windturbine.waterpowered energies,highspeed maglev trains. electric and solar powered, cars and human habitation. time to do the real things for americans and not afghans,israelis,muslings and others.thank you

[hifie]

10:38 AM on 04/23/2012

Once the eye was taken off the ball in Afghanistan and put on Iraq we and the troops in Afghanistan were in trouble. While there have been improvements as part of a refocus it is too little to late. The Russian had A Massive presence in Afghanistan and even if we committed that many troops we would only end up in the same dilemma. The fact is the troops have done what they can and had it been the sole focus at the beginning it would have been different.
The fall out is for those Afghanistan people who believed in the promise of freedom who will be denied and the woman and female children who will have to back to a uneducated subservient role for the rest of their lives. Just because freedom is right does not mean that those who enjoy their dominance will allow it to blossom. That is going to be one of the hurts of this effort. The people who see this first hand are the troops who are there, see what will happen when we leave and will carry it home with them

[rikkkipug]

10:34 AM on 04/23/2012

All we should give this corrupt country-leaders is a good bye and best of luck, we're done.

[SESZOO]

10:30 AM on 04/23/2012

The time has come ! How much more of this nonsense do we as American people want to support, It's time weather you be Democrat or Republican ,Independant or Libertarian or what ever , It's time to stand up and say No More,,, Enough is Enough of this never ending waste of our young men and women. How many more pictures or accounts of atrocitys do you want to see of our kids thast have been warped by this so called war, Those people aren't our allies they are bleeding us dry and divideing our house, all so they can take our money and freedom! It is time to say NO MORE!

[FreedomTen]

10:20 AM on 04/23/2012

More stimulus money? Oh yes...to the pockets of the Afghan drug cartel and the incoming Taliban.

We have so many starving, impoverished people in our own country. Why? Why? Why do we continue supporting these year of the flood countries? The only thing the US needs to do is to place strategic Tridents and let those governments know that any threat to our friends (those that believe in Democracy and human rights) will be dealt an immediate and serious blow. No more talk because they are masters in BS and delays.

[Louis Cyphr]

10:10 AM on 04/23/2012

After the ObamaKare fiasco, Side-Deals became Obama's middle name, the transparency he promised a tragicomic joke. This "deal" being accomplished according to the political timeframe of Obama's reelection. To surrender the Afghan people to this fate is an act of cowardice that should lift the morale of America's enemies. Strength of character, moral obligations and considerations are apparently passé in a declining America.

[retiredfemale]

10:38 AM on 04/23/2012

Right: and when it is reviewed and approved by Congress which is primarily GOP what will you complain about? The joke here is you.

[ALittleBitCrazy]

10:04 AM on 04/23/2012

A few more years to see what more damage we can do there, to make Afghanistan's people hate and probably fear for the United States? Great. Can't wait to see what the future holds.

[retiredfemale]

10:51 AM on 04/23/2012

This is the same thing we have with S Korea and all the other places we have 'helped' and where we continue to send troops; look up how many countries we have bases in.

[ALittleBitCrazy]

11:15 AM on 04/23/2012

And yet you never hear of killing innocent civilians, posing with dead bodys and a detainees......hmm, strange.