Afghan President Hamid Karzai leaves after the last day of the Loya Jirga, in Kabul November 24, 2013.
CREDIT: REUTERS/OMAR SOBHANI
KABUL
(Reuters) - An assembly of Afghan elders endorsed a crucial security deal on Sunday to enable U.S. troops to operate in the country beyond next year, but President Hamid Karzai left the matter up in the air by refusing to say whether he would sign it into law.
The gathering, known as the Loya Jirga, had been convened by the president to debate the pact outlines the legal terms of continued U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. It voted in favour and advised Karzai sign it promptly.
But Karzai, in his final remarks to the four-day meeting, said he would not sign it until after a presidential election due next April....
Now, let me get this right. The Loya Jirga stated the USA is to stay one more year in Afghanistan and wants to have Karzai immediately sign an agreement with the USA.
Yet, Karzai states he won't sign it until after the elections next year. Now, that sounds like nothing more than USA politics where legislators are held responsible for their vote. That is all this is. There is nothing to say a change in government in Afghanistan won't end the USA involvement either. Karzai has been the leader in Afghanistan since 2001 and influential in the country long before that. So, I don't know why there is talk about troops until 2024, unless they are their for the $1 Trillion in rare earth minerals. If that is the case, then the American people have another Halliburton and they can hire their own security guards.
Don't think for one minute any monies obtained from mining Afghanistan will come to the USA Treasury. It won't happen.
Karzai has plans for the nation, he just isn't going to let on as to what those plans are, except, he needs the USA to insure the central authority is intact.
I don't think so.
