THIS IS A VERY SIGNIGICANT DEVELOPMENT!
IF FIRST TWO EXCERPTS COME TO FRUITION,
WE WON’T HAVE A MAJOR MIDDLE EAST WAR
TILL US FORCES LEAVE AFGHANISTAN – IRAQ!
November 11, 2010
http://www.tribulationperikod.com/
I am hoping Excerpts 1 and 2 of November 9th will be negated by the formation of an acceptable Iraqi government in Excerpt 3 on November 11th. I would like for all of our troops to be out of the Middle East by 2013. Iran, Syria, Hizbullah, Hamas, and those aligned with them do not want American ground forces fighting against them in the next major Middle East War with Israel.
Begin Excerpt 1 from CNSNEWS.COM
U.S. Commander: U.S. Will Be Fighting in Afghanistan in 2014
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
(CNSNews.com) – U.S. Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, the commander of the NATO training mission in Afghanistan,
indicated Tuesday that U.S. forces will still be fighting in Afghanistan in 2014.
He said current plans aim to have “Afghan security forces in the lead” and U.S. forces in supporting roles by Dec. 31, 2014–more than four years from now.
President Obama has said that U.S. forces will begin withdrawing from Afghanistan in July 2011. But Lt. Gen. Caldwell’s statement today indicates that the drawdown will still be in progress three-and-a-half years after it begins.
In July, Afghan President Hamid Karzai declared: “I am determined that our Afghan security forces will be responsible for all military and law enforcement operations throughout the country by 2014.”
On Monday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen indicated that they supported Karzai’s transition timeline.
But during a telephone discussion with bloggers on Tuesday, Lt. Gen. Caldwell explained that this meant that by the last day of December in 2014 Afghan security forces will be in the lead role in that country with U.S. forces in support.
CNSNews.com asked the general, “Will the Afghan forces be able to operate independently and handle their own security by 2014?”
Caldwell said: “I think [the] key here is they’re talking about December 31st, 2014. It’s the end of December in 2014 when they’re talking about that, President Karzai has said they want Afghan security forces in the lead. It doesn’t mean that there will still not be coalition forces here in support of them. But the primary lead for security in this country must have been established with the Afghan security forces in the lead by the end of 2014.”
Caldwell continued: “The answer to that question is yes, we fully support and endorse and, in fact, by all accounts believe that we can in fact achieve that and have the Afghan security forces in the lead by the end of 2014.”
Caldwell went on to say that based on “current growth projections and what we have seen over the past year, there’s no reason to believe that that’s not an attainable goal. By all accounts that is something that should be able to be achieved.”
During the roundtable briefing, Caldwell mentioned that the literacy rate among Afghan security forces recruits, which currently stands at only “15-18 percent,” poses a major hurdle for the U.S.-led training mission in Afghanistan.
“Without the basic ability to read a map, write down a weapon’s serial number, or read a bank statement, Afghan National Security Force recruits are greatly at risk on the battlefield and become highly susceptible to corruption,” said Caldwell.
Nevertheless, Caldwell told CNSNews.com that based on troop growth and level of training projections, the ANSF should be operating at an acceptable literacy level by the end of 2014.
At that time, Caldwell said, the ANSF will be at literacy “levels that are acceptable to enable it to be an enduring, self-sustaining force that will continue to professionalize and move forward.” Caldwell did not specify what level of literacy would be considered “acceptable.”
However, NATO’s Training Mission literacy program is focused on bringing Afghan soldiers up to a third-grade reading, writing, and number recognition level, which is enough to read a simple manual or pamphlet, understand how much they are getting paid, and account for their people and equipment on paper.
According to Caldwell, although the literacy rate among recruits remains low, prospective officer-position holders are literate, which he defined as being able to read, write, and recognize numbers at a third-to-sixth-grade level.
Caldwell mentioned that the NATO training mission has put in place “mandatory literacy training” that “did not exist last year.”
He went on to highlight that there is a “94 percent pass rate” of the Afghan Ministry of Education first grade test among the Afghan recruits who undergo the initial 64 hours of literacy training provided to them, after they are tested for literacy upon coming into the ANSF.
“What the education gives them now is the ability to read and write and allow them to really start the professionalization,” he added. “Any given day of the week right now we’ve got about 27,000 [individuals] in literacy training programs and, thus far, we have trained and already have tested over 25,000–so that’s generally where we are today.”
“We continue to expand this program,” said Caldwell. “Our goal is by about the end of December [2010] that any given day we’ll have 40 to 50,000 in literacy training programs and, hopefully by next summer — because we’re going to continue to expand this to the operational units — we’ll perhaps have as many as 100,000 doing some form of literacy training either towards the first grade level, the third grade level, or the sixth grade level.”
Caldwell pointed out that Afghan security forces, in “very isolated cases,” have already taken the lead in small regions of Afghanistan.
Begin Excerpt 2 from THE ASSOCIATED PRESS via YAHOO NEWS
Gates: US open to request from Iraq to stay
(AP)
November 9, 2010
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — The United States is open to the idea of keeping troops in Iraq past a deadline to leave next year if Iraq asks for it, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday.
“We’ll stand by,” Gates said. “We’re ready to have that discussion if and when they want to raise it with us.”
Gates urged Iraq’s squabbling political groups to reconcile after eight months of deadlock.
Any request to extend the U.S. military presence in Iraq would have to come from a functioning Iraqi government. It would amend the current agreement under which U.S. troops must leave by the end of 2011.
“That initiative clearly needs to come from the Iraqis; we are open to discussing it,” Gates said.
U.S. and Iraqi officials have said for months that they expect Iraqi leaders to eventually ask for an extension of the military agreement with the U.S., but the political impasse has put the idea on hold.
A spike in violence in Iraq over the past two weeks has underscored the continued potency of al-Qaida and other Sunni extremists.
“We have been pretty clear to the Iraqis that what we seek, and hope they will come together on, is an inclusive government that represents all of the major elements of Iraqi society and in a nonsectarian way,” Gates said. “It is our hope that that is the direction they are moving in.”
He spoke following a meeting with Malaysian Defense Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Leaders of Iraq’s major political blocs met Monday for the first time since parliamentary elections in March. The 90-minute televised session, the start of three days of talks, did not lead to a breakthrough.
The battle is largely a contest between the Iranian-favored coalition of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki
and followers of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr against a Sunni-backed secular coalition led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
At stake is whether Iraq has an inclusive government of both the majority Shiites and the minority Sunnis, or a Shiite-dominated government with the Sunnis largely in opposition — a recipe that many worry will turn the country back to the sectarian violence of a few years ago.
Al-Maliki’s bloc won 89 seats in the March 7 election, compared with 91 for Allawi’s coalition; neither side won the majority of seats needed to govern.
Gates said he has not spoken directly to any of the political leaders, but other U.S. officials, including Vice President Joe Biden, have been heavily engaged.
Gates predicted that a new government would need some time before asking the U.S. to extend the troop plan.
Although the 2011 deadline was a point of pride for Iraq after years of U.S. military occupation, it does not leave much time for the U.S. to train Iraq’s fledgling air force. Iraq also wants more U.S. help to protect its borders.
Begin Excerpt 3 from BBC News
Iraq parties reach deal on Maliki-led government
November 11, 2010
Iraq’s main parties have agreed to form a government, ending eight months of deadlock since elections in March, officials from the various parties say.
Kurdish regional president Masoud Barzani called the deal a “national partnership”.
He said Nouri Maliki, a Shia, would remain as prime minister, while the main Sunni faction get the Speaker’s post. Its leader, Iyad Allawi, will head a council for national strategy.
The Kurds will get the presidency.
Iraq’s parliament is meeting on Thursday afternoon to take the first formal steps towards forming a government.
“Thank God, last night we made a big achievement, which is considered a victory for all Iraqis,” Mr Barzani said at a news conference.
The White House welcomed the progress, calling it a “big step forward”.
Checks and balances
On Wednesday, the parties reached a deal to keep Mr Maliki as prime minister after he gained the support of the Sunni coalition led by former PM Allawi.
Analysis
Jim Muir BBC News, Baghdad
The focus is very much on this new body, called the National Council for Strategic Policy.
It is being offered to Iyad Allawi, the challenger who has lost ground to Mr Maliki over the past few months.
Whether he will personally accept it is still unclear at the moment, but his coalition should be allocated the council under this division of power.
The question is, will that body turn out to be an effective power-sharing instrument whereby they can influence policy, especially in the realms of security.
That issue is Mr Allawi’s main concern and of some other people who believe Mr Maliki went a bit out on his own on security issues in the past four years.
Before the session, MPs said they would begin by electing a speaker and two deputies.
Next, they would vote for a president, expected to be the incumbent, Kurdish politician Jalal Talabani.
The president would hand the task of forming the government to the leader of the largest coalition – Mr Maliki.
He would then have a month to put together a cabinet.
If all goes according to plan now, says the BBC’s Jim Muir in Baghdad, Iraq will end the day not actually with a new government but with agreement on the basis for it.
The reality should just be a matter of time, not more than a month, our correspondent says.
A government spokesman expressed confidence that the deal would give Iraq’s Sunnis and the man they voted for, Iyad Allawi, enough to keep them on board the political process.
In addition to the council for national strategy, Mr Allawi’s bloc will also get the foreign ministry.
White House spokesman Anthony Blinken, national security advisor to US Vice-President Joe Biden, said the agreement was “a big step forward for Iraq”.
“All along we’ve said the best result would be a government that reflects the results of the elections, includes all the major blocs representing Iraq’s ethnic and sectarian groups, and that does not exclude or marginalise anyone,” AFP quoted him as saying.
“This looks like a good outcome for those working for a stable, peaceful Iraq and a bad result for those whose agenda is more sectarianism and violence.”
Negotiations to form a new government reached a stalemate after election results were announced.
Mr Allawi’s Al-Iraqiyya bloc won two more seats than Mr Maliki’s State of Law party, but neither had enough seats to form a government.
The tide turned for Mr Maliki in early October when the militant young Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr announced that the 40 or so seats he controls in the new parliament would back the incumbent for a second term, our correspondent says.
FAIR USE NOTICE: Th is site
contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.
We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more detailed information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.
You may use material originated by this site. However, if you wish to use any quoted copyrighted material from this site, which did not originate at this site, for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner from which we extracted it.