Brown announces Afghanistan withdrawl

[pkd]

Brown hints at Afghanistan handover date

BRITISH Prime Minister Gordon Brown has raised the prospect of a timetable for an international withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, in a speech in which he said about half of al-Qaeda's leadership had been killed.

Mr Brown said he hoped a United Nations-sponsored conference in London in the new year would set a timetable for a handover to Afghan security forces.

Delivering the traditional Prime Minister's foreign policy speech at the Lord Mayor's banquet in the City of London, Mr Brown said damage inflicted on al-Qaeda gave international forces a chance to set a timetable for leaving Afghanistan.
The chief of British defence staff, Sir David Richards, predicted last month that the country's armed forces might be fighting on the front line until 2014, with a further ''five years of declining violence'' before they went into a supporting role. Neither Mr Brown nor US President Barack Obama want Afghanistan to be seen as a war without end.

''Since January 2008, seven of the top dozen figures in al-Qaeda have been killed, depleting its reserve of experienced leaders and sapping its morale,'' Mr Brown said. ''There is now an opportunity to inflict significant and long-lasting damage to al-Qaeda.''

The January conference, he said, could ''identify a process for transferring district by district to full Afghan control and, if at all possible, set a timetable for transfer starting in 2010''.

The British Government hopes the UN, NATO and Afghan President Hamid Karzai will attend the London conference and name the first provinces to be handed over to Afghan management.

Mr Brown and Mr Obama appear to be working on an Iraq-style strategy in which Afghan security forces gradually take over areas.

Mr Obama has repeatedly said he does not want plans to increase US troops to Afghanistan to be seen as an open-ended commitment to the country.

Washington and London regard a clean-up of the Karzai Government as essential to limiting support for the Taliban and boosting support for hated Afghan security forces.

The US and British ambassadors in Kabul flanked the Afghan President at a news conference on Monday at which he promised to clean up his corrupt Government through a new tribunal, and said he would work with the FBI, Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency and Europol.

Karl Eikenberry, the US ambassador in Afghanistan, has openly condemned corruption by the Afghan elite, including its links to the narcotics trade.

''Ordinary Afghans must be convinced that the powerful can no longer exploit their positions to make themselves wealthy while the less fortunate struggle to find work and to feed their families,'' he said.

One US official said Mr Karzai's Government was ''like a criminal syndicate. That's why people get driven towards the Taliban - it's the only way to express your outrage at this stuff.''

 

[hembo]

The title of the op is a bit misleading. I for one was surprised to see initially UK's announcement of Af-withdrawal. It, however, turned up to a hint at a probable handover in the future.

 

[waraich66]

I think Mullar Omer nominated leadership will soon take over charge from Karzai and Karzai will be given safe passage .

I think decissions already made by Queen of England modalities are remaining

 

[Ahmad]

I think Mullar Omer nominated leadership will soon take over charge from Karzai and Karzai will be given safe passage .

I think decissions already made by Queen of England modalities are remaining

you wish. it is not the issue of the west only. it is a matter of life and death for the afghans too. taliban taken control of afghanistan is like leaving the country to die. there will be fierce resistance against them, alot of bloodshed.

 

[AstanoshKhan]

you wish. it is not the issue of the west only. it is a matter of life and death for the afghans too. taliban taken control of afghanistan is like leaving the country to die. there will be fierce resistance against them, alot of bloodshed.

Oh really?

BTW, what good did US/UK bring to Afghanistan in the last 8 - 9 years of intruder-ship? Ask an Afghani living today in Afghanistan( who had seen the govt. of Taliban in the past), you will hear something which these corrupted corporate media won't tell you. i.e. good about Taliban's govt and the worse about these intruders.

"The dust of Afghanistan never suits the invaders."

 

[sohailbarki]

Jews must be very upset with this handover all their efforts and investments will go junk

 

[Ahmad]

Oh really?

BTW, what good did US/UK bring to Afghanistan in the last 8 - 9 years of intruder-ship? Ask an Afghani living today in Afghanistan( who had seen the govt. of Taliban in the past), you will hear something which these corrupted corporate media won't tell you. i.e. good about Taliban's govt and the worse about these intruders.

"The dust of Afghanistan never suits the invaders."

i lived under the taliban from start to end. afghani taliban are as bad as TTP. look around and see how poor pakistani public are suffering because of TTP, people of afghanistan have experienced this for more than a decade because of the taliban.

 

[ek_indian]

Jews must be very upset with this handover all their efforts and investments will go junk

 

[AstanoshKhan]

i lived under the taliban from start to end. afghani taliban are as bad as TTP. look around and see how poor pakistani public are suffering because of TTP, people of afghanistan have experienced this for more than a decade because of the taliban.

Well, dear, I don't know where have you been to Afghanistan during the Taliban regime but I live in Peshawar, where 3500,000+ Afghnis residing as refugees since 1980s and I hear these stories from every second Afghani I met who has relatives and businesses back in Afghanistan and they have more hat towards these US/NATO (Oppressors) then Taliban itself.

Now in case of Pakistani Taliban, TTP is a boogy man just like AQ and OBL, whose ropes are controlled beyond Pakistan's borders. Perhaps this is just the setup before the Oppressors declares that they will have to "save a nuclear-armed Pakistan from itself".



Regards

 

[xdrive]

Please change the title of this thread, it is mis leading.

Also i dont think the OP is legit. No source provided plus, i havent heard anything in the news about this.

 

[Ahmad]

Well, dear, I don't know where have you been to Afghanistan during the Taliban regime but I live in Peshawar, where 3500,000+ Afghnis residing as refugees since 1980s and I hear these stories from every second Afghani I met who has/had relatives and businesses back in Afghanistan, and as a matter of fact they have more hat towards these US/NATO (Oppressors) forces then Taliban itself.

Now in case of Pakistani Taliban, TTP is a boogy man just like AQ and OBL, whose ropes are controlled beyond Pakistan's borders. Perhaps this is just the setup before the Oppressors declares that they will have to "save a nuclear-armed Pakistan from itself".



Regards

I was in kabul and travelling to some other provices too(work related), you might have seen some people praising the taliban, i never deny that, they surely have some support, but we have to see the country as a whole.

what you say about TTP is what i say about Afghanistan's taliban. there is alot of parallels between TTP and Afghai Taliban as well as their deep cooperation. You are concernd about TTP's foreign link, and people of Afghanistan is concerned about Afghani Taliban's foreign link.

by the way, i used to live in Hayatabad, where are you?

 

[waraich66]

i lived under the taliban from start to end. afghani taliban are as bad as TTP. look around and see how poor pakistani public are suffering because of TTP, people of afghanistan have experienced this for more than a decade because of the taliban.

Why Aghan talaban are bad ?
Because they stopped prostitution in Kabul.
They bring poppy cultivation at zero level.
They refuse to take world bank aid
They refuse to accept conditions of US for pipe line between central asia and Gawadar.


May be you have more information of their wrong doing in addition to above, please enlighten us ,

Critisim for sake of critisim make non sense

 

[Ahmad]

Why Aghan talaban are bad ?
Because they stopped prostitution in Kabul.
They bring poppy cultivation at zero level.
They refuse to take world bank aid
They refuse to accept conditions of US for pipe line between central asia and Gawadar.


May be you have more information of their wrong doing in addition to above, please enlighten us ,

Critisim for sake of critisim make non sense

They are bad because they destroyed/have been destroying afghanistan, they killed/are killing their own people. prostitution was never stopped in their time, but it was flourished under the Burkas, because that unlimited number of women who were barred from working had to turn to prostitution(some of them), they had to feed their little kids somehow, no matter how disgusting prostitution was.

Brought poppy cultivation down to zero? you need to check your information. You need to be aware of the fact that the Taliban today are the biggest drug dealers in afghanistan. all drug cultivation is situated in provinces that the taliban have influence with the exception of Badakhshan.

Refused to take World Bank's aid? very funny, and sad at the same time. why should have they been bothered to take aid from world bank, it was the people of afghanistan who were dying from hunger, not the taliban. they were on ISI's payrol, they didnt have to worry.

Do you know the masacares they carried out in afghanistan? do you that how man shias were masacared by the hands of the taliban? do you know how many villages and cities were destroyed by them?

 

[waraich66]

it was the people of afghanistan who were dying from hunger, not the taliban. they were on ISI's payrol, they didnt have to worry.

You have no match for self created stories , any link please?

 

[Ahmad]

You have no match for self created stories , any link please?

i will try to see if i can provide any link for it. but there is a simple logic for it. they barred every single woman from working, how could they feed their family? women are half the population. there was no investment, they never had any economic plans, they were putting alot of pressures on NGO and etc, if there was anyting other than this i ask you to explain it to me.