Afghan Security Handover Not Until 2014: UK Army Chief

[tekisui]

Source: Daily Times

LONDON: Britain’s military chief said on Sunday that international troops in Afghanistan would be unlikely to hand over security to Afghan forces until 2014, amid mounting public concern about the mission there.

Air Chief Marshal Jock Stirrup, the chief of defence staff, told the BBC that timescale estimates by General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, were “a little optimistic”.

“General McChrystal estimates that it will not be before 2013. I think that’s a little optimistic. I’d say about 2014,” Stirrup said. He said international troops had inflicted “significant damage” on Al Qaeda since operations began in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US and they had been driven into Pakistan. But he said British troops must stay in Afghanistan to stop them coming back.

Earlier, Lieutenant General Jim Dutton, the most senior British commander in Afghanistan, suggested that it would take “three to four years” to reach Britain’s stated goal of handing over the security lead to domestic forces. Concern over Britain’s role in Afghanistan and how long its 9,000 troops will be there has mounted in recent months alongside the death toll.


more: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\11\09\story_9-11-2009_pg20_1

[excess_3]

1. get out now .nt

[sam sarrha]

3. get out of Afghanistan NOW.. it's much worse than they let on..it's a BLACK HOLE >>links>>

the Muslims are not going to change how they been running the place for the last 1200 years, the Theocratic Oligarchy makes the rules and the Warlords aren't gonna change to help a bunch of peeons they now profit from by using them as slaves,... it is a Feudal State, they arent going to shame themselves and their clans by doing what an Infadel tells them to do. they will just suck up as much money as we are stupid enough to give them. then turn on us when the sun goes down.

hopefully Obama is wiser than the Generals on this

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09084/957975-374.stm#ixzz0VXJIx6Kn
"snip...There is a logic inherent in the current situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan that says clearly to the administration of President Barack Obama, "Don't go any further with this one."

It is simple. It is impossible to fix Afghanistan without fixing Pakistan. It is impossible to fix Pakistan. Thus, Afghanistan is and will remain an impossible sinkhole.

It will, in fact, be the same kind of quicksand for the United States in terms of unwinnability that the Vietnam War was for more than a decade.

The further implication for the Obama administration is that, as was the case with the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson, all of its great objectives to meet the short- and long-term needs of the United States at home will go over the falls as it wrestles to find the resources and energy to contend with an expensive war that it cannot win and does not have the courage to end
..snip

http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis20.html
Afghan tribes are taking up arms against their foreign occupiers. I saw this happen during the 1980s, when growing hatred of Soviet occupation forces ignited a national uprising.

[excess_3]

4. exactly right .nt

[sam sarrha]

2. and when they do, will the new REALLY EXPENSIVE..in dollars and american lives..army fire on other

Muslims on Jihad..?? are we just eventually arming up the Talaban.??

is this all for nothing.. another tragic example of why you cant drag Medieval Feudal Cultures into modern times at gun point,??