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| Afghanistan | |
| US shouldnÂ’t speed up Afghanistan pull out-- envoy | |
| 2012-02-27 | |
WASHINGTON: The United States should resist the urge to pull troops out of Afghanistan ahead of schedule due to the violence against Americans over the burning of the QurÂ’an at a US military base, US Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker said on Sunday.
He added that a full investigation of the incident was underway at the Bagram airbase near Kabul. “This is not the time to decide that we are done here. We have got to redouble our efforts. We’ve got to create a situation that Al-Qaeda is not coming back,” Crocker said. “If we decide we’re tired of it, Al-Qaeda and the Taleban certainly aren’t." In a CNN interview from Rabat, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday others need to join Karzai in calling for an end to the violence. “It is out of hand and it needs to stop.” Crocker noted that Karzai has called for calm “almost since the beginning,” and Afghan security forces were working to quell the demonstrations. “They are very much in this fight trying to protect us,” Crocker said. A leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, on Sunday stepped up his criticism of Obama. Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Romney said that for many Americans, considering the thousands of American deaths in Afghanistan, the apology “sticks in their throats.” Pulling US forces and civilians out of Afghan ministry offices after two US officers were killed in the Interior Ministry in apparent retaliation for the Qur’an incident was, Romney said, “an extraordinary admission of a failure.” His chief opponent, Republican Rick Santorum, said Karzai should apologize to the United States for the violent reaction to “something that was clearly inadvertent.” “I think the response needs to be apologized for by Karzai and the Afghan people - of attacking and killing our men and women in uniform,” Santorum said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “That’s the real crime here, not what our soldiers did.” | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #5 I don't think this will be another Vietnam (as much as the Democrats want to relive their glory days of old...). I think it may be a lot worse. Vietnam wasn't as 'tribal' and the government wasn't actively against us. Bumbles won't want to 'antagonize' the enemy by sending in choppers to pull the diplomats from the Embassy's roof. Or worse yet he'll order them in 'unarmed' - remember to him the Taliban are 'honorable'. Damn fool is going to get a lot of good people killed. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2012-02-27 12:22 |
| #4 That's about right moose. Just in time for the election and the Cindy Sheehan vote. Reputation of the US and well being of the troops are not in the equation. |
| Posted by: Hellfish 2012-02-27 12:14 |
| #3 not like Vietnam. We actually had allies that would fight, a large christian population, and there was Cam Rahn Bay. |
| Posted by: bman 2012-02-27 11:29 |
| #2 ...and harder to get at than Somalia or Yemen. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2012-02-27 09:46 |
| #1 I have a sinking feeling that the departure from Afghanistan will be like the departure from Vietnam. Followed shortly thereafter by a flood of Taliban and al Qaeda back into Afghanistan to overthrow the government. And about two years later Kabul will fall and Afghanistan will be returned to utter chaos and anarchy. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2012-02-27 08:49 |