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War, War, War See other War, War, War Articles Title: 'We're not leaving,' say U.S. officials in Afghanistan op American officials in Afghanistan say the U.S. military intends to maintain a troop presence here beyond a 2014 deadline for Afghan troops to take over. Marine Gen. John Allen, the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said the Taliban and other forces in the region need to know the U.S. military will make sure the Afghans can handle the job. "If you been waiting for us to go, we're not leaving," he said. NATO forces agreed last year to set a deadline of the end of 2014 for turning over security to Afghan forces and ending combat operations. The United States has 90,000 troops in Afghanistan. There are more than 30,000 troops from NATO allies. By the end of the summer of 2012, U.S. forces are slated to drop to about 68,000. Allen did not say how many American troops would remain or what role they would have beyond training the Afghan air force into 2016. Among the capabilities Afghanistan's security forces lack are high-end intelligence gathering and superior counterterrorism techniques. "This is a work in progress," Allen said. "The continued work beyond '14 in terms of development of economic capability and governance will continue. We will also see, probably, a U.S. military capability beyond '14." Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday it was important for the region to know that the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan does not expire in three years. Dempsey said the Taliban can't think it will prevail by waiting for a U.S. withdrawal, and American fighters need to know their efforts to secure the nation will be safeguarded. Before 2014, the role of U.S. troops will shift from leading combat missions to advising as Afghan forces become more capable, Allen said. Dempsey said that whether the military keeps trainers or counterterrorism troops beyond 2014 will be negotiated but that he was "not predicting tens of thousands" of U.S. troops. U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker stressed that a key to Afghanistan's stability lies with Pakistan's. He said Pakistan must go after extremists who use havens on its side of the border to launch attacks in Afghanistan. "It's going to be very hard to succeed in Afghanistan if there is not action taken to reduce the safe havens in Pakistan," Crocker said at his residence here. "Some of our Afghan colleagues use the image of a hornet's nest. You can whack the hornets here, but the nest is not here." Crocker said the U.S. administration has no intention of taking out the safe havens in Pakistan. "We have means of reaching across the border," he said. "But the notion of U.S. troops actually moving into Pakistan has never been on the table. … It would be effectively a declaration of war on a country of 170 million people with nuclear weapons. It is not an option." Pakistan has cooperated with NATO in the past, but its leaders shut down a border crossing used to supply U.S. troops last month after 24 Pakistani troops were killed by NATO aircraft. NATO said it targeted militants on the Pakistan side of the border after coalition troops in Afghanistan took fire. Pakistan says the attack was unprovoked and has refused to cooperate with a NATO investigation of the incident. Crocker and Allen said negotiations continue to ease tensions. "The safe havens are going to play an extraordinarily important role in the end in the success of this conflict," Crocker said. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
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