AP Interview: US general says Afghan deal vital

[alp227]

Source: AP

The top U.S. and coalition commander in Afghanistan stressed Saturday that the signing of a stalled bilateral security agreement between America and Afghanistan was needed to send a clear signal both to the Afghan people and the Taliban that the international community remains committed to the country's future stability even as foreign forces withdraw.

Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, who commands the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force, told the Associated Press it was important to sign the deal, which has been stalled since June by President Hamid Karzai. He did not say if the deal was close to signing, but there have been indications recently that it is nearing that.

Last month U.S. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he would like to see an agreement by October to give NATO enough time to prepare for a post-2014 military presence instead of a total pullout.

"There is no doubt that the bilateral security agreement is going to send a clear message first and foremost to the Afghan people and Afghan security forces and enhance their confidence to deal with the challenges that we will have to deal with collectively in the coming months," Dunford said.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ap-interview-top-us-commander-afghanistan

[Purveyor]

1. Was Iraq required to sign such a deal I wonder? eom

[karynnj]

2. It was the failure to get such an agreement that led to the US removing all troops

- without it the US will not stay.

[another_liberal]

3. Screw that nonsense. It's time to piss on the fire and call in the dogs.

Afghanistan is not ripe for our nation-building efforts. Most likely, it never will be.

They will never forget us, but they will never obey us either. Call it a day.

[Ash_F]

6. I wonder what the US will do when we actually get attacked by Afghans

Will the military invade Canada?

[another_liberal]

7. If there is enough money in it for the likes of Halliburton . . .

I would say there's a very good chance we will.

[ConcernedCanuk]

8. "Will the military invade Canada?"

.
.
.

They are working on that.

Want immunity to crimes committed in Canada if they are allowed to "help" us in border control.

Our HarperDude is trying to sneak that one through.

H may succeed.

(sigh)

CC

[Comrade Grumpy]

4. Bring ALL the troops home. Like Iraq.

These are strange little imperial adventures. We can crush our initial foe, but we can't win the peace, and then our war eventually just sort of peters out, and our forgotten soldiers withdraw, and the locals get back to business.

Oh, at a cost of a couple trillion dollars, thousands of American lives, and the lives of tens if not hundreds of thousands of the people we came to liberate from our bogeyman of the day. Somebody gets rich off these wars, though. Like ol' Smedley Butler said, it's a racket.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

5. "...to send a clear signal both to the Afghan people and the Taliban that,..."

American business contracts will be honored by whatever fucked up government they end up with,...or else.