On our way out of Afghanistan.

[ZYouL8R]

Crossing their airspace isn't an issue, if we're willing to get our hands dirty and take out their AA sites and deal with any aircraft they decide to send up. But I doubt that Pakistan will want to bite the hand *too* much because we give them tons of money.

Seriously?

If a country forbids us from using their airspace, we're not going to blatantly ignore them and use it anyways. Especially a country with a capable air force and enemy air defense system. We're not going to go to war with another country for the sake of using their airspace.

[racrguy]

I wonder if this has anything to do with our weakening ties with Pakistan. Most don't realize that the main way in and out of Afghanistan for Allied aircraft is over Pakistan. If they forbid us from using their airspace, we'd be completely fucked. The writing might be on the wall so we're pulling chocks a lot earlier than before.

Crossing their airspace isn't an issue, if we're willing to get our hands dirty and take out their AA sites and deal with any aircraft they decide to send up. But I doubt that Pakistan will want to bite the hand *too* much because we give them tons of money.

[ZYouL8R]

I wonder if this has anything to do with our weakening ties with Pakistan. Most don't realize that the main way in and out of Afghanistan for Allied aircraft is over Pakistan. If they forbid us from using their airspace, we'd be completely fucked. The writing might be on the wall so we're pulling chocks a lot earlier than before.

[KBScobravert]

PM me your number. I'll call when I'm sober

Done

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[Denny]

PM me the Afghan bases if you want and if I have been to them I will give you the low down.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk

PM me your number. I'll call when I'm sober

[KBScobravert]

Funny you say that. Remember when I said I'd never go back to the Middle East and especially not Afghanistan? Well, I'm doing a quick 50 day deployment to three bases in Afghan and two in Kuwait on environmental audits. FML

PM me the Afghan bases if you want and if I have been to them I will give you the low down.

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[jw33]

The sooner we can get out the better.

[no4njnk]

I don't know if mass ground troops leaving is a bad idea. I'm sure special forces and CIA will stay behind to continue training them as they have done since the beginning, and in the beginning we had the most success in the war. Let the Nothern Alliance and local tribal groups fight the Taliban and al Queda while minimizing the possibilities of American casualties.

[Denny]

I am glad I went but even more glad I am not returning.

Funny you say that. Remember when I said I'd never go back to the Middle East and especially not Afghanistan? Well, I'm doing a quick 50 day deployment to three bases in Afghan and two in Kuwait on environmental audits. FML

[KBScobravert]

It would never be a pretty outcome no matter how many years we spent there. In fact the longer we are there pumping American dollars into their corrupt society the worse the problem gets. It is a never ending race. For ever year we spend equipping, training and fighting we move a few rungs up the ladder. However in that same time period, that money we spent there has moved the criminal element and anti coalition forces several rungs past us in their ability to sustain this war to keep their coffers lined.

No matter how long we stay, we will always look like shit heads when we leave. We will always be accused of "abandoning the Afghan people again". We (American people/.gov) are ignorant to think we can teach these dirt worshipers how to be civilized human beings.

I am glad I went but even more glad I am not returning.

[The King]

We will be involved in this again.

Especially once Pakistan becomes a bona fide Islamic republic.

[Sean88gt]

We will be involved in this again.

[sspstang]

How much time do they need to equip their police force and train them? 10 years wasn't long enough.

Apparently not. Will it ever be enough time? The only thing, that I have approved during Obama's term, is that he is bringing our troops home.

[mstng86]

How much time do they need to equip their police force and train them? 10 years wasn't long enough.

[racrguy]

Seems like it's about to turn into a shitstorm.

(Reuters) - The United States appears to have taken Kabul by surprise by announcing plans to end its Afghan combat role earlier than expected, and coinciding with a secret report that the Taliban is confident it can grab back control of the ravaged country.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, speaking on Wednesday, said the United States would stop combat operations before the end of 2013 as it winds down its longest war.

"A decision to push this a year earlier throws out the whole transition plan. The transition has been planned against a timetable and this makes us rush all our preparations," a senior Afghan security official, who could not be named because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, told Reuters on Thursday.

"If the Americans withdraw from combat, it will certainly have an effect on our readiness and training, and on equipping the police force," the official said, adding that his government had not been informed of the change in plans.

The United States, which led the NATO invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, has previously said it would withdraw most combat troops by the end of 2014.

Panetta said the U.S. troops would shift next year to a supporting role, training and advising Afghan troops who would take charge of a country that has been at war for more than three decades.

A faster end to U.S. combat in Afghanistan could give President Barack Obama an election-year lift.

It may also demoralize Afghans who fear a return to the austere rule of the Taliban and hope that reconciliation between all parties would deliver a better alternative.

People like hotel waiter Yama, 19, expressed alarm at the prospect that U.S. troops will cease combat sooner.

"Everything Afghanistan has built during the past years would be destroyed, robbed and sold to neighboring countries," he said.

Many Afghans have long been suspicious of neighboring Pakistan's intentions, and would like to see it tame Afghan militant groups it is accused of supporting.

Ties between the countries have been strained in recent months, but Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said on Thursday after her trip to Kabul a day earlier that "a lot of ill will had faded."

She said Pakistan had played no substantial role in reconciliation efforts but would encourage insurgent groups like the Haqqani network and the Taliban to lay down their arms and pursue peace if asked by Afghanistan.

"We would be able to do whatever we have, whatever tools we have, we would want to exploit to be able to assist the Afghan people," she told a small group of reporters in a briefing on her trip to Kabul this week.

"We are willing to do whatever the Afghans expect or want us to do."

MILTANT GROUPS AS PROXIES

Pakistan has long been accused of using militant groups as proxies in Afghanistan to counter the influence of its rival India there, allegations it denies.

Despite her enthusiasm over ties with Kabul, Khar cautioned the nascent peace process is far from producing breakthroughs.

The United States believes Afghanistan cannot be pacified without strong cooperation with Pakistan.

But ties have been damaged by a series of events including the unilateral U.S. raid that killed Osama bid Laden on Pakistani soil in May last year, and a NATO cross-border raid that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November.

Islamabad is currently reviewing ties with the United States and parliament is expected to soon make recommendations on a new direction for the relationship.

Panetta's announcement immediately drew criticism from Obama's most likely opponent in this year's race for the White House, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

"Why (in) the world do you go to the people that you're fighting with and tell them the day you're pulling out your troops? It makes absolutely no sense," Romney told a rally.

Panetta has also been criticized by some lawmakers for moving too swiftly to extract U.S. troops.

"Our goal is to complete all of that transition in 2013 and then hopefully by mid- to the latter part of 2013 we'll be able to make a transition from a combat role to a training, advise-and-assist role," Panetta told reporters on his plane to Brussels for a NATO defense ministers' meeting.

The announcement came as allies like France are themselves looking for a quick exit from Afghanistan. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, facing a tough re-election campaign of his own, announced he would pull out French troops by the end of next year.

He urged other members of the North Atlantic alliance to do the same, threatening to upend a well-settled strategy approved at a summit in Lisbon two years ago that calls for the transition to Afghan security leadership by the end of 2014.

The United States has been trying to draw the Taliban into reconciliation talks with the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai. But a key part of its strategy has been to increase military pressure on the Taliban to persuade it to join peace talks.

TALIBAN CONFIDENT ON CONTROL

In a classified report obtained by British media, NATO said that the Taliban, backed by Pakistan, remained confident despite a decade of NATO efforts that it would retake control of Afghanistan.

"Taliban commanders, along with rank and file members, increasingly believe their control of Afghanistan is inevitable. Though the Taliban suffered severely in 2011, its strength, motivation, funding and tactical proficiency remains intact," according to an excerpt of the report, published by the Times of London and the BBC.

Panetta insisted that the new timetable was in line with a previous NATO strategy agreed in Lisbon.

"In the Lisbon discussions, it was always clear that there would come a point which we would make that transition and then be able to hopefully consolidate those gains in 2014," he said.

"So the bottom line is: No, this isn't a new strategy. It's basically implementing what Lisbon is all about."

He said his key message to the NATO allies as they meet on Thursday and Friday to prepare for a Chicago summit in May was that the coalition in Afghanistan needed to unite behind the goals agreed on in Lisbon.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/02/us-afghanistan-idUSTRE8100E520120202?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=71