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NATO Seeks To Formalize Afghan Withdrawal
Chicago summit seeks to outline timeline for local forces to take over amid plunging support for the war.Afghan forces will be taking on a leading security role next year rather than in 2014 as originally envisioned, in part due to plunging support for the war in Europe and the United States, points out the Associated Press. Karzai insisted Afghanistan is looking forward to the war’s end "so that Afghanistan is no longer a burden on the shoulder of our friends in the international community, on the shoulders of the United States and our other allies.”
Despite the signs that NATO allies want to get done with Afghanistan as quickly as possible, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen emphasized that “there will be no rush for the exits,” reports Reuters. Despite France’s decision to withdraw its troops by the end of this year, Rasmussen expressed confidence that “we will stay committed to our operation in Afghanistan and see it through to a successful end.”