Yes, but when people say that NATO is "pulling out", what they usually mean is a total withdrawal, which is not the case, so I wanted to be sure that everyone was clear on the matter. It's hit the news wires on more than on occasion that the top brass of the US military has stated that somewhere in the order of 14,000 NATO troops will need to stay behind to ensure that the ANSF are fully capable of running their own security. The ANSF are still a fragile bunch, much like the Iraqi security forces were prior to our scaling back in Iraq. They are still undisciplined when bullets start flying. While we do a good job of training them, they still have a bad habit of going back to their old ways of fighting, if they stay to fight at all. (this first hand information is accurate as of May 2012 when I left Afghanistan, things may have improved since then).
Now, there are some good Afghan soldiers out there. The recent attack on the Kabul airport showed that they have some soldiers and police who are willing to fight for their country. According to the reports, no NATO forces were involved in the repelling of the Taliban that attacked the airport. It was all Afghan led. How accurate these reports are I can't say though. I can find out but I don't feel like bothering people over there that I know. So, back to the original point. I do not like the phrase pulling out, because again it implies a total withdrawal. I think that the more accurate phrase would be NATO forces are scaling back considerably over the next year or so. On Jun 18, 2013, at 9:35 AM, Vivec <gel21...@gmail.com> wrote: > > *chuckle* > > I understand fully what is happening, and it's what any reasonable person > would expect to happen when the President of the US says the US Forces are > pulling out of Afghanistan. > > However more than one person made the statement that the US is *not* > pulling out, and one of the explanations was that they will have a > "prescence" there. > > Well hell, the US Military has a continuous "presence" in Trinidad....but I > wouldn't say they are active in the country. They have a presence in > Kuwait, as you said, and in many other areas of the world. > > So we can agree, the US Military is pulling out of Afghanistan. > > ;-P > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:364669 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
