Afghanistan: Staying for a mighty long haul?

Knowing how well politicians and public servants "arrange" these things, no less than 1000 delegates are assembled in Bonn - not Kabul mind you, 'cos that would obviously be dangerous and not nearly as "comfortable" as being in Europe - to discuss the future of Afghanistan. Pakistan, a major player in the region, isn't even at the Conference. And now the Afghan President has asked for "assistance" for his country way beyond 2014, the years everyone has been talking about as the year of withdrawal from the country. 2030 in fact!

"As dozens of nations and organizations met here on Monday to plan a transition beyond the withdrawal of American and other international forces from Afghanistan in 2014, the Afghan government had a new deadline in mind: 2024.

President Hamid Karzai and other Afghan officials here called for political and military support for at least another decade — and financial assistance that would not end until 2030. That would be nearly three decades after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 that led to the international intervention in Afghanistan.

While Mr. Karzai and others celebrated the strides made in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban — 60 percent of Afghans now have cellphones, he said, compared with none in 2001 — the conference underscored the multiple challenges facing a government undermined by corruption and threatened by a tenacious insurgency.

“We will need your steadfast support for at least another decade,” Mr. Karzai said, addressing leaders here at a conference held on the 10th anniversary, to the day, of talks in Bonn that established the political foundation for a new government in Afghanistan."

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