Karzai: Afghan youth will lead
KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai said today his nation's youth will stand up and defend the Afghanistan as the U.S. begins to pull its troops out, while France announced its forces would leave on a similar timetable.
Karzai spoke briefly from the presidential palace after President Barack Obama announced he would bring 33,000 U.S. troops home by next summer. Karzai thanked international troops for their support and said “the people of Afghanistan will be protecting their homeland.”
“The transition of the security and the withdrawal of the foreign troops from Afghanistan means the Afghan forces must be strengthened,” Karzai said.
The U.S. and its allies have set Dec. 31, 2014, as a target date for ending the combat mission in Afghanistan.
The war has killed at least 1,500 members of the U.S. military and wounded another 12,000 since the war began in late 2001. The financial cost of the war has passed $440 billion and is on the rise, jumping to $120 billion a year.
Karzai, who has increased his criticism of the U.S.-led NATO force in recent months, said he and others welcomed the withdrawals as “a good measure.”
Abdullah Abdullah, Karzai's former foreign minister who lost to him in Afghanistan's 2009 presidential election, cautioned the U.S. and NATO drawdowns needed to be gradual.
“The core Taliban group, their idea is to topple the system, to reverse the process,” he said. “They will continue their struggle.”
In a rare statement in English, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the U.S. “must take serious steps to stop this pointless bloodshed.”
