Afghanistan presses for answers on long-term U.S. military bases

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Afghanistan presses for answers on long-term U.S. military bases

By Sanjeev Miglani and Hamid Shalizi

KABUL | Sat Mar 31, 2012 4:40am EDT

(Reuters) - Afghanistan wants the United States to clearly spell out what sort of military presence it will leave behind once most of its combat troops leave by the end of 2014, a senior Afghan official said.

It is also pressing Washington in talks over future cooperation to detail to be more forthcoming on what will be on offer for Afghan forces as they ready to take over responsibility security in the country that is still at war.

"These are issues that concern us. We want to know how many bases will be there, how many soldiers and what will be their mission. And what will we get from the United States for our security forces," President Hamid Karzai's chief spokesman Aimal Faizi told Reuters, without specifying what levels he thought would be appropriate.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/31/us-afghanistan-usa-talks-idUSBRE82U04W20120331

[dipsydoodle]

1. There have been 2939 coalition deaths in Afghanistan

and a financial cost of http://costofwar.com/en/ link provides running total.

Just buying bases in the first place would've cost less and saved those lives quite aside from Afghani civilian lives.