The US has No Intention of Leaving Afghanistan: Military Presence in Afghanistan to Maintain US Geostrategic Interests

Region:
In-depth Report:

 

The U.S. has no intention of leaving Afghanistan after the 2014 deadline for withdrawing its troops because of the geostrategic importance of the country, says Rick Rozoff from the Stop NATO organization.

On Tuesday, Gen. Joseph Dunford, the current U.S. commander in occupied Afghanistan, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that U.S. troops should remain in Afghanistan after 2014. Dunford said he had not made any assessments on the U.S. troop level beyond 2014.

In January, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Pentagon plans to leave roughly 3,000, 6,000, or 9,000 U.S. troops in after the 2014 deadline for NATO operations in the country.

Earlier this month, Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also expressed his support for maintaining 8,000 to 12,000 NATO troops in the war-torn country after the 2014 deadline for the withdrawal of occupying forces.

“In a nation that borders Iran, borders Pakistan, borders China, and is not terribly far from Russia as well, the U.S. and its Western military allies intend to maintain military operational capabilities,” said Rozoff in a phone interview with the U.S. Desk on Wednesday.

“The U.S. has massively upgraded air force bases that were built, in some cases modernized, decades ago by former Soviet Union, those in Bagram, Shindand, Kandahar and other places.

“These are bases that have been increased by a factor of several times in size and in sophistication and are capable, or could be capable in short order, of hosting strategic bombers, that is, even long-range U.S. military aircraft that could be used for any military conflict within the general region,” added Rozoff.

Stop NATO e-mail list home page with archives and search engine:
http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/stopnato/ messages

Stop NATO website and articles:
http://rickrozoff. wordpress. com

To subscribe for individual e-mails or the daily digest, unsubscribe, and otherwise change subscription status:
stopnato-subscribe@ yahoogroups. com


Comment on Global Research Articles on our Facebook page

Become a Member of Global Research


Articles by: Rick Rozoff

Disclaimer: The contents of this article are of sole responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on Globalization will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in this article. The Centre of Research on Globalization grants permission to cross-post Global Research articles on community internet sites as long the source and copyright are acknowledged together with a hyperlink to the original Global Research article. For publication of Global Research articles in print or other forms including commercial internet sites, contact: [email protected]

www.globalresearch.ca contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of "fair use" in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than "fair use" you must request permission from the copyright owner.

For media inquiries: [email protected]