Afghanistan Could Face 'Eye-Watering Violence' After Troops Leave

[unhappycamper]

Mark Sedwill, the civilian counterpart to US commander General David Petraeus, said that the target of handing over security responsibilities to the Afghan army and police by the end of 2014 might not be met.


Afghanistan Could Face 'Eye-Watering Violence' After Troops Leave
by Jon Boone in Kabul
Published on Wednesday, November 17, 2010 by The Guardian/UK

Afghanistan could experience "eye-watering" levels of violence after foreign combat troops withdraw from Afghanistan in four years' time, the Nato representative in Kabul warned today.

Mark Sedwill, the civilian counterpart to US commander General David Petraeus, also said that the target of handing over security responsibilities to the Afghan army and police by the end of 2014 might not be met.

The alliance's plan for the "transition" of responsibilities from Nato's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to the still embryonic Afghan army and police will be high on the agenda at this week's Nato summit in Lisbon.

Many European countries that contribute troops see the plan as their ticket out of an unpopular war, but Sedwill warned that success was not guaranteed and the 2014 date was merely an "inflection point" in a campaign that would continue for a long time. In some areas of the country transition could run "to 2015 and beyond" he said.

Although the alliance hopes that foreign-led counterinsurgency operations will come to an end, troops would still be required to train and support the Afghan security forces and maintain "a strategic over watch" position, he said.

[hobbit709]

1. Domino Theory Redux.

We've heard this BS before in how many countries?

[SoCalDem]

2. Afghanistan will go back to being Afghanistan when we leave

It's always been a harsh, unforgiving place (except for a short time in the 50's & 60's)

Nothing we (or anyone) can do will change it much..

Uneducated tribal people like their lifestyles enough to resist change.

We are just spinning our wheels & making more enemies:(

[northernlights]

3. they face eye-watering violence right now

Thank you so much President Obama. You promised '11. You reneged to '14. And your military pals immediately started pushing it to '15...and beyond.

[MineralMan]

4. I have no doubt that is true. But, it doesn't matter when we leave,

or how. Afghanistan will be Afghanistan, where tribal and religious fighting has gone on pretty much always. We cannot impose our idea of a peaceful society on Afghanistan. It will not work. That is a critical flaw in the entire thing. We should not have gone there or to Iraq in the first place. No good purpose will be served by our presence.

I said that before these adventures began, and I'm still saying it. When we leave, Iraq and Afghanistan will still be there, and will still be Iraq and Afghanistan. We can change nothing there.

[w8liftinglady]

5. more importantly,private corps will suffer an eye-watering decrease in contracts.