After months of being telegraphed in the media, through a process of trial balloon, advocacy by anonymous quote, unofficial announcement, and hedged denial, the nonwithdraw of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, this year, has now been officially announced.
The United States will halt the withdrawal of 9,800 troops from Afghanistan, half of whom were scheduled to leave in the months ahead, and instead keep them in the country through the end of 2015.
U.S. Agrees to Slow Pullout of Troops From Afghanistan, New York Times
By joint and equal agreement between the United States and Afghanistan, social, economic, security, and human rights gains will be sustained and advanced.
and to discuss the actions each country needs to take to ensure that the social, economic, security and human rights gains made over that period are sustained and advanced.
U.S.-Afghanistan Joint Statement, White House Press Office
Though, to be honest, for protecting recent gains made in the U.S., I'm not sure that Afghanistan is the right country to do it.
For one thing, Afghanistan's security forces are already pretty well burdened. And their social, economic, and human rights officials are pretty well burdened too.
I can see, though, that many Afghans might want to have some of those security forces sent back
“For God’s sake, take these people away from us,” Mr. Ahad, 36, said of Rahimullah’s militiamen. “We cannot stand their brutality.”
Afghan Militia Leaders, Empowered by U.S. to Fight Taliban, Inspire Fear in Villages, New York Times
to where, essentially, they had come from.
Ashraf Ghani, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and Abdullah Abdullah, who is this guy there, that has one of the palaces inside the Arg, are on a state visit to Washington DC.
President Barack Obama welcomed Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, and the accompanying Afghan delegation to Washington from March 22-26, 2015.
U.S.-Afghanistan Joint Statement, White House Press Office
The President and the Chief Executive have nominated some new cabinet ministers.
The proposed Minister of Culture and Information is a poet and a journalist. The proposed Minister of Transportation has been a deputy and acting Minister of Transportation. The proposed Minister of Water and Power has worked in hydraulic engineering.
And, the proposed Minister for the Economy, nominated by Abdullah Abdullah, was an Abdullah Abdullah campaign manager.
Abdul Satar Murad is an ethnic Tajik and was born in Parwan province in 1957. Most recently, he served as deputy head of Dr. Abdullah’s electoral campaign team and chairman of the political committee of Jamiat-e Islami (2007 to 2014).
Finally Towards a Complete Afghan Cabinet? The next 16 minister nominees and their biographies, Afghanistan Analysts Network
The proposed Minister of Justice has a background, more or less,
Data about his recent history is still very scarce, but there are details about his career during the mujahedin time.
in health.
The proposed Minister of Education has a background in former First Vice President, Field Marshal for Life, and Mafioso Mohammad Qasim Fahim.
Asadullah Hanif Balkhi, an ethnic Tajik in his fifties, hails from Balkh Province where he also became a member of Jamiat-e Islami. He is said to have had a particularly close relationship with the late Marshal Fahim.
As far as education goes, he had once, as Ambassador to Kuwait, arranged some scholarships for his family. If you believe ("
He is said ...") what is printed on the internet, at least.