The United States intends to maintain a permanent military presence in Afghanistan, manager of the organization Stop NATO, Rick Rozoff, said.

“There is a growing sense among Afghan people that all talk about withdrawal of foreign troops is only partially true and that the United States and its NATO allies intend to maintain a military presence in the country indefinitely,” he said in an interview with U.S. Desk on Saturday.

Gen. James Mattis, head of U.S. Central Command, has recently stated that he envisioned about 20,000 troops in Afghanistan after the December 2014 withdrawal deadline.

Rozoff said that the growing resentment the Afghans feel towards the occupation forces is justifiable. “People in any nation would feel similarly… and it’s a further indication that the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan has to be accelerated and it also has to be complete.”

On Friday afternoon, Afghan soldiers attacked a U.S. base in the Kapisa Province, killing a U.S. contractor, while wounding four additional U.S. troops.

A sharp rise last year in insider attacks, which Afghan security forces turn their guns on U.S.-led forces, greatly strained relations between Washington and Kabul.

“The recent so-called insider attack in Kapisa province in Afghanistan is the latest in a series of comparable or similar incidents aimed at, in the case of Kapisa military contractors, but in the past it’s been aimed at U.S. and other NATO military organizations, occupation troops inside the country,” Rozoff said.

“This is now the 13th calendar year of that occupation. It marks the longest armed conflict, the longest war in the history of Afghanistan as well as the longest war in the history of the United States,” he added.

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