US President Barack Obama told his war council, a group of top Pentagon, Cabinet and administration officials, that the US commitment to Afghanistan is not open-ended, when the group met for more than two hours Wednesday 11 November. In a dramatic follow-on to the news, the US ambassador to Afghanistan, former military leader Karl Eikenberry, has sent a message to Obama, in a memo leaked to the press, that it would be a mistake to send more troops before corruption in the country is tackled. Obama asked for revisions to plans from the council members to increase troops, at the request of the top US commander in Afghanistan. The main sticking point for Obama is to clarify the point at which US troops will hand over to the Afghanistan government, a move linked to ending corruption in the government.
Links to other sites: the Canadian Press agency, CNN
News story, GenevaLunch, 12 November 2009.
Filed under: World news
Tags: Afghanistan, ambassador, Barack Obama, handover, Karl Eikenberry, US troops, war council
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One Response to “US Afghanistan commitment “not open-ended”, ambassador says don’t send massive troops”
November 12th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Unless we develop a comprehensive South Asia strategy, the most we can hope for is a temporary peace in Afghanistan.
What would such a strategy look like? Well, at the very least it requires some moderation of the strategic competition between India and Pakistan. Without attention to this aspect of the problem, we really are only playing around at the edges of the conflict.
For more, see: http://bit.ly/3vYHPk