Uh oh. Looks like our point guy in Afghanistan didn’t get the memo that there’s a hard stop on U.S. troops in Afghanistan in eighteen months.
"President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday that Afghanistan would not be able to pay for its own security until at least 2024, underscoring his government’s long-term financial dependence on the United States and NATO even as President Obama has pledged to begin withdrawing American troops in 2011."
Reports the New York Times.
"’For another 15 to 20 years, Afghanistan will not be able to sustain a force of that nature and capability with its own resources,’ Mr. Karzai said, referring to the force required to secure the entire country."
This comes at the same time that Robert Gates is making noises that sound an awful lot like moving the goalposts on the withdrawl date.
Think we have a cogent strategy in Afghanistan when the key players can’t even agree?