2014 is only an "inflection date;" there are riches to be had in Afghanistan and we ain't leaving

[sad sally]

Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michèle Fluornoy says,
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The plan was laid out at the NATO summit in Lisbon, and what it calls for is the transition process for transferring lead responsibility for security to the Afghans, to be completed by the end of 2014, and we believe we’re on track to do that.
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Obviously that will have economic dimensions, diplomatic, other dimensions, but one of the dimensions on the security side is, at the invitation of the Afghan government, we will continue to have a partnership force in place that really provides advising, assisting, continued support to the Afghan National Security Forces for quite some time. So 2014 is not a withdrawal date—it’s an inflection point where we put Afghans firmly in the lead and we step back into a consistently supporting role, but with much lower numbers of troops.

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/2014-not-withdrawal-date%E2%80%94it%E2%80%99s-inflection-point-6131?du

And here's why Americans can expect the military to occupy Afghanistan until who knows when:

The Pentagon’s Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO), in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey, announced today it will provide training and equipment specific to airborne geophysical exploration to the Afghan Geological Survey. This initiative is part of the U.S. Government’s continuing efforts to help the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan identify and develop its vast deposits of mineral resources in a transparent and responsible fashion.

A key component of the USGS’ new effort is to train Afghan geoscientists in collecting, processing and interpreting high-resolution geophysical data themselves. Utilizing airborne technology is essential to obtaining reliable, detailed information on mineral and rare earth element deposits.

…The TFBSO has already worked extensively with USGS to develop an ongoing survey of mineral resources and rare earth elements in Afghanistan, as well as creating an online and central repository for that data in Kabul. The new training is intended to augment and expand these earlier efforts. This earlier work identified at least $1 trillion in mineral resources, fossil fuels, and rare earth elements within Afghanistan, according to Pentagon estimates.

[hifiguy]

1. The US will never leave if there is even a fraction of those

purported natural resources available for exploitation by TPTB. We will always be at war with WestAsia.

[Newest Reality]

2. Any day can be

a day for the jackals.

What were we there for, again? Oh, never mind, the resources are icing on that bloody, dusty and so far, rather expensive cake. Fear not, there will be plenty to go around for the corporate pirates our military people serve.

Oh, and forget your umbrellas, there will be very little in the way of showers, trickling down.

[dtexdem]

3. Maybe we ain't leaving; but we can't get there no more.

We're only not leaving because we've lost the convoy routes out. ;-)