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3/13/2014 August 2014: The New Deadl ine for the US-Afghanistan Bi lateral Secur ity Agreement? | The Diplomat

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August 2014: The New

Deadline for the US-Afghanistan BilateralSecurity Agreement?

The top U.S. commander inAfghanistan sees August 2014 as thelast possible date for the bilateralsecurity agreement.

On Wednesday, General Joseph F. Dunford

Jr., the top U.S. commander in

Afghanistan, told the Senate Armed Services

Committeethat the United States runs a

real risk of allowing Al Qaeda and other

extremist groups time to regroup and plan

another attack on the West shouldinternational troops completely withdraw by

the end of 2014. The initial objective in the

U.S. invasion of Afghanistan back in 2001

was to attack and neutralize those who had

perpetrated the devastating attacks of

September 11 , 2001. Given that, the

Generals testimony amounts to an acknowledgement that the U.S. may have to walk away

from Afghanistan with no guarantee that it succeeded in changing its status as a safe haven

for fundamentalist Islamic terror groups.

During his testimony, Dunford acknowledged the precarious status of the Bilateral Security

Agreement (BSA) between the United States and Afghanistan. The agreement was prepared

and sent to Afghan President Hamid Karzai to sign in late 2013 but he refused to do so on the

grounds that it would be a more appropriate task for his successor (and because he felt that a

continued U.S. presence in Afghanistan post-2014 was not in the best interests of his

country). Apart from Karzais recalcitrance, the BSA has mainstream approval in

Afghanistans political community, having been approved by both the Loya Jirga in

November 2013 and more recently by major presidential candidates Abdullah Abdullah,

Ashraf Ghani, and Zulmai Rassoul.

By Ankit PandaMarch 14, 2014

http://thediplomat.com/http://thediplomat.com/authors/ankit-panda/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/13/world/asia/us-commander-warns-of-risks-in-pullout-from-afghanistan.htmlhttp://thediplomat.com/

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