NATO Sets 2014 Target for Afghan Pullout, Los Angeles Times, 21 November 2010

EXCERPT: "A NATO summit originally intended to allow members to signal an exit date for the unpopular 9-year-old war in Afghanistan  instead concluded Saturday with an agreement leaving open the possibility that allied forces will remain in the unstable country for years to come. North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders gathered in Lisbon signed an agreement with the Afghan government to transfer primary security responsibility from the alliance to Kabul by 2014, as NATO gradually shifts focus to training, advising and logistics. But officials carefully hedged the timeline, in light of the uncertainties in the military effort and the training of Afghan security forces. [...] Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO's secretary-general, said he did not 'foresee [allied] troops in a combat role beyond 2014, provided of course that the security situation allows us to move into a more supportive role.... We have to make sure that we do not leave Afghanistan prematurely.' [...] Yet 'there may still be extensive cooperation with the Afghan armed services to consolidate the security environment,' he said."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Afghan withdrawal timeline "irrational": Taliban, Reuters, 22 November 2010
, The Independent, 21 November 2010
Pakistan cautiously backs Nato's Afghan plans, DAWN, 21 November 2010
Five things David Petraeus wants you to believe [op-ed], Current Intelligence, 22 November 2010

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