The US mission in Afghanistan is coming to an end, US President Barack
Obama said. The local authorities are to secure the area by 2014.
Analysts believe that the initiative is related to the coming
elections in 2012, Vesti reports.
10,000 troops will return home by the end of this year, 23,000 more
will return by September 2012.
The president proposed concenrating on counter-terrorism operations,
such as the operation in Pakistan, in which US forces killed Al-Qaeda
leader Osama Bin Laden. Afghanistan still has 70,000 troops. US
Generals have proposed reducing their number to 10,000 marines.
However, this would mean that Obama does not keep his promise.
US forces have been at war in Afghanistan for about 10 years. George
Bush sent forces there after the attack on September 11. About 1,500
US troops had been killed and 12,000 wounded by mid-2010. $443 billion
has been spent on the operation. Leon Panetta is set to replace Robert
Gates as US Secretary of Defense. He has been ordered to reduce
expenditure. Training of Afghan troops will be stopped.
A spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry, Mohammed Zahir Azimi,
said that they will take control of the situation but they need US
equipment.
64% of US citizens consider the war in Afghanistan pointless. They
have a similar attitude towards the wars in Iraq and Libya.
