BRUSSELS — A German official said Friday that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has told NATO allies that the U.S. will leave between 8,000 and 12,000 American troops in Afghanistan after 2014, when combat ends.
German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere told reporters Friday that Panetta informed him of the numbers.
Comments
Pull every last one of our people out of that place and park a few Patriot missile batteries just over the boarder in our "friendly" areas if we truly have any left. Position the latest satellite technology in geostationary orbit above that Godforsaken place and then just sit tight and watch. I trust that country will likely revert to what it has always been regardless of any outside intervention. That's fine with me as long as their anger and hatred stays confined within their own boarders.
Of course, if they extremists need an outlet, they can always infiltrate and eliminate the former cast of the Jersey Shore, Honey BooBoo, or any one of the Kardashians, etc..... I'd be happy to look the other way.
It is absolutely necessary that a robust presence remain to insure that the bottomless pit where we dump countless billions of dollars is secure for today, tomorrow and forever.
Looks like the Barry O gang needs to send a runner to some public library tos ee if a volume of British military history can be found and borrowed. Maybe Barry and his croneys can look up British Empire, Afghanistan Indian Army, and two 19th Century wars to get a load of what American and a few NATO troops will face. We are back at a general repeat of Vietnam. . . a likely defeat of the vaunted American military by a national entity barely out of the feudal/tribal era and made up of people who view death as a holy concept as long as it is seen as benefitting their peoples and territory, and in this case, religion. Oh yeah, maybe Barry the O should call up his almost bud, Putin, and ask what the Russians think of the Soviets' final behavior in Afghanistan.
Of course. We need to keep the "War on Terror" going so that all the extra-constitutional actions Bush and Obama have taken during this twelve-year-long "emergency" don't suddenly become much more obviously illegal and prosecutable. Long live the Post-Constituional American Empire. Look on the bright side- Rome lingered for another few centuries after they became a dictatorship.
Combat is ending in 2014??? It will really begin in 2014! Decades ago, former British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan famously said "The first rule of foreign policy is Never Invade Afghanistan!"