The same with the rest of the Mid-East.
On Mar 15, 11:13 am, Tommy News <tommysn...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Karzai Calls on U.S. to Pull Back as Taliban Cancel Talks
>
> Omar Sobhani/Reuters
> An American soldier, center, kept watch during a security transition
> ceremony from a private security company to the Afghan government at a
> power plant in Kabul on Wednesday.
>
> By ROD NORDLAND and MATTHEW ROSENBERG
> KABUL, Afghanistan — Prospects for an orderly withdrawal of NATO
> forces from Afghanistan suffered two blows on Thursday as President
> Hamid Karzai demanded that the United States confine troops to major
> bases by next year, and the Taliban announced that they were
> suspending peace talks with the Americans.
>
> Getting talks started with the Taliban has been a major goal of the
> United States and its NATO allies for the past two years, and only in
> recent months was there concrete evidence of progress.
>
> And the declaration by President Karzai, if carried out, would greatly
> accelerate the pace of transition from NATO to Afghan control, which
> previously was envisioned to be complete by 2014. Defense officials
> admitted there was a major divide between Mr. Karzai's declaration and
> the American goals of training the Afghan security forces and
> conducting counterinsurgency operations. Successful counterinsurgency
> requires close working relationships with rural Afghans to help build
> schools, roads and bring about other improvements.
>
> Asked if it was possible to take all American forces out of villages
> by 2013 and still train Afghan security forces and conduct
> counterinsurgency operations, a senior American defense official
> replied, "It's not clear that we would be able to."
>
> Mr. Karzai declaration came in reaction to widespread Afghan anger
> over the massacre by an American soldier of 16 civilians in Kandahar
> on Sunday, and the decision of the military authorities to remove the
> soldier from Afghanistan, which was reported on Wednesday.
>
> The Taliban statement, issued in English and Pashto on an insurgent
> Web site, said talks with an American representative had commenced
> over the release of some Taliban members from the Guantánamo Bay
> prison, but accused the American representative of changing the
> preconditions for the talks.
>
> The statement did not make clear what preconditions were
> objectionable, but the statement emphasized that the Taliban were only
> interested in talking with the Americans, and criticized "propaganda"
> about the talks that American officials had issued. Zabiullah Mujahid,
> a spokesman for the Taliban reached by cellphone at an undisclosed
> location, said the statement suspending the talks was genuine but
> declined to discuss it further.
>
> It was unclear if the two developments might have been related. But
> both came to light just as Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta had left
> Afghanistan after a tense two-day visit that included talks with Mr.
> Karzai, and the Afghanistan president's announcement in particular
> appeared to be a surprise. On Wednesday, President Obama said in
> Washington that the timetable for an Afghanistan withdrawal would not
> change.
>
> Defense officials traveling with Mr. Panetta in Abu Dhabi said that
> the tone of the meeting between Mr. Karzai and Mr. Panetta was more
> positive than Mr. Karzai's statement would indicate, and that he made
> no demands of the defense secretary — suggesting that the statement
> was in part aimed at a domestic audience enraged not only by the
> massacre but also by recent Koran burnings.
>
> The officials acknowledged that Mr. Karzai told Mr. Panetta during
> their meeting that American troops should be confined to major bases
> by next year, but the officials sought to publicly tamp down the
> differences and portray the two countries as working together.
> "Secretary Panetta said, 'We're on the same page here,' " the Pentagon
> press secretary, George Little, quoted Mr. Panetta as telling Mr.
> Karzai.
>
> Mr. Panetta, speaking to reporters after the meeting, said he had told
> Mr. Karzai that the military pledged a full investigation of the
> massacre and would bring the gunman to justice. He said that Mr.
> Karzai had not brought up the transfer of the suspect, an Army staff
> sergeant, to Kuwait.
>
> Although the move was likely to further anger Afghans, who had called
> for him to be tried in their country, Lieutenant Gen. Curtis M.
> Scaparrotti, the No. 2 American commander in Afghanistan, told
> reporters that the Afghans had been informed of the move ahead of
> time, and he said that "their response is that they understood."
>
> General Scaparrotti said that the American military would likely not
> make the suspect's name public until and if he was formally charged.
> He did not say when that might happen. "We are conscious of due
> process," he said.
>
> More:http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/16/world/asia/taliban-call-off-talks-a...
>
> --
> Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
> Have a great day,
> Tommy
>
> --
> Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
> Have a great day,
> Tommy
--
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