NATO leaves door open for troops to remain in Afghanistan

The attack killed 12 medical staff members, seven adult patients and three children patients. When I made it out from the office, the main hospital building was engulfed in flames. “In the intensive care unit, six patients were burning in their beds”.

“We have phantom people on the rosters, we have 60-year-old men uneducated [and] signed up for these Afghan forces, we have tons of people we are paying that aren’t even showing up for work”.

Southern Afghanistan has been home for much of the deadliest of fighting.

Support for Afghanistan can not be indefinite or unconditional, he said.

The Pentagon’s strategy was to shift the blame.

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation on Monday issued a statement demanding that the violations cease.

Not just the “pocket money” as they call it, but the chance to skim from the many shakedowns and extortion rackets they have running. “If we are there, then I do think these other countries will contribute”, Thornberry said.

Gen. Campbell also briefed the Senate Armed Services Committee on the Kunduz strike on Wednesday. “The hospital was mistakenly struck”. We have opened a new training facility. “Our colleagues had to operate on each other”, says Dr. Joanne Liu, MSF president. “International humanitarian law is not about “mistakes”.

Stoltenberg noted the Kunduz tragedy and underscored the need for a full, thorough and transparent investigation.

The Taliban made headlines recently by capturing the northern city of Kunduz, the group’s biggest military victory since 2001.

Back on Capitol Hill, General Campbell stated the obvious.

The situation is a setback for Afghan forces, Cook acknowledged, but he said the the United States has confidence in the Afghan government forces. “It will take time for them to build their human capital” and they would need NATO’s help “well beyond this year”. “This has been going on and on and on”, Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., said. President Barack Obama wants to leave about 1,000 troops by 2017.

“You just don’t turn a country into a strong military force that can defend itself overnight”, the congressman said.

Afghanistan has extremely limited close air support capability, Campbell said, and is up against an enemy who is taking advantage of gaps in security and the reduced worldwide military presence.

“5K! Because things are going so well with 10K”, tweeted Bill Roggio, editor of the Long War Journal, published by the Council for Foreign Relations, a New York-based think-tank.

The September 11, 2001, attacks led the United States to invade Afghanistan. “And after several months of being jobless I had to join the Taliban”, he said. By supporting the Taliban, Iran creates a physical opposition to the influence of the U.S.in the Middle East.

The Kunduz attack, it seems, was merely a dry run for the Taliban, which now hope to sow panic in Kabul and test the commitment of a Washington that appears to lack the stomach, resources, and will for yet another surge in a conflict it thought it had left behind. “What that means to China and Pakistan”.

We will also address the situation in Syria and in Afghanistan.