Deal gives U.S. 2 more years to train Afghan troops, conduct strikes

[unhappycamper]

http://www.latimes.com/world/afghanistan-pakistan/la-fg-afghanistan-signs-security-pact-ensuring-continued-us-troop-presence-20140930-story.html



Deal gives U.S. 2 more years to train Afghan troops, conduct strikes
Ali M. Latifi, David S. Cloud
9.30.2014

Afghanistan’s approval Tuesday of a continued U.S. and NATO troop presence gives the Pentagon at least two more years to train Afghan troops and conduct targeted strikes against Taliban insurgents who have stepped up attacks in key parts of the country.

Signing the security agreement was one of the first acts of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s new government, and is likely to help repair Kabul’s long-strained relations with Washington.

“I assure all Afghans that this agreement is in our national interest,” Ghani, who took office Monday, said after the signing ceremony at the presidential palace. Keeping foreign troops in Afghanistan would not be an “obstacle to peace,” he said.

But the deal’s tortuous path to approval reflects ambivalence among both U.S. and Afghan officials about continuing a 13-year military relationship that began with a U.S.-led invasion after the Sept. 11 attacks.