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rug

(82,333 posts)
Sun May 5, 2013, 02:06 PM May 2013

Obama's new AfPak diplomat: U.S. forces needed in Afghanistan 'well beyond' 2014 if peace talks fail

Posted By John HudsonFriday, May 3, 2013 - 7:45 PM

In 2011, James Dobbins, Barack Obama's newly appointed special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, published a 100-page analysis on the importance of a negotiated peace deal for the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The document makes for an interesting read as Dobbins transitions from an uncensored private citizen to a lead diplomat confronting the rapid drawdown of America's military presence in the region.

In the report, titled "Afghan Peace Talks: A Primer," Dobbins expressed skepticism about Obama's ability to wind down the Afghan war, full stop, in 2014 in the absence of a peace deal.

"If negotiations fail, some level of American military engagement will probably be necessary well beyond the 2014 date by which President Obama has promised to remove all American combat forces," he wrote.

What we know now, that Dobbins (or anyone else) didn't know then, is that negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government are going nowhere. On Wednesday, the Taliban assassinated a member of the Afghan High Peace Council, the third Taliban assassination of a senior council member in the last year and a half. The attack also occurred one day after the Taliban killed three British soldiers in an IED attack in Helmand province. Meanwhile, planned negotiations in Qatar are stalling and Pakistani support for peace talks has been waning.

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/05/03/james_dobbins_pakistan_afghanistan_peace_talks

Here's Dobbins' report for the Rand Corporation a/k/a Why We're Not Leaving

http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monographs/2011/RAND_MG1131.pdf

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Obama's new AfPak diplomat: U.S. forces needed in Afghanistan 'well beyond' 2014 if peace talks fail (Original Post) rug May 2013 OP
When stuck in hole keep digging? Tierra_y_Libertad May 2013 #1
The Afghans will be happy to keep killing them until the last one leaves. Comrade Grumpy May 2013 #2
afghanistan is a tribal society, even before Islam. their behavior is thousands of years old nt msongs May 2013 #3
Aren't seniors going to need social security and Medicare well beyond indepat May 2013 #4
Nobodoy has said - yet - that SS and medicare will end in 2014. rug May 2013 #5

indepat

(20,899 posts)
4. Aren't seniors going to need social security and Medicare well beyond
Sun May 5, 2013, 03:47 PM
May 2013

2014? If so, what should go?

 

rug

(82,333 posts)
5. Nobodoy has said - yet - that SS and medicare will end in 2014.
Sun May 5, 2013, 04:39 PM
May 2013

But to answer your uestion, take it from the military. A sound social structure provides much more national security.

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