NATO: Obama warns of "hard days" ahead in Afghanistan

(AP) CHICAGO - President Barack Obama warned of "hard days" ahead in Afghanistan as world leaders Sunday opened a NATO summit confronted by questions about the country's post-conflict future.

Meeting in Mr. Obama's home city of Chicago, the leaders discussed their next steps in Afghanistan: preparing for elections and finding money to support Afghan security forces at a time when member nations are dealing with tight budgets and waning public support for the war.

They insisted the fighting coalition will remain effective despite the plans of newly elected French President Francois Hollande to yank combat troops out early.

"There will be no rush for the exits," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said. "Our goal, our strategy, our timetable remain unchanged."

Rasmussen denied there were fresh cracks in the alliance. He suggested a deal will emerge for France to move into a noncombat role but continue to support the international mission.

NATO chief: "No rush for the exits" in Afghanistan

After meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, President Obama said that the end of the war is in sight. The military alliance is pledged to remain in Afghanistan into 2014, but will seal plans Sunday and Monday to shift foreign forces off the front lines a year faster than once planned.

"We still have a lot of work to do and there will be great challenges ahead," Mr. Obama said. "The loss of life continues in Afghanistan and there will be hard days ahead."

Afghan forces will take the lead throughout the nation next year, instead of in 2014, despite uneven performance under U.S. and other outside tutelage so far. The shift is in large part a response to plummeting public support for the war in Europe and the United States, contributors of most of the 130,000 foreign troops now fighting the Taliban-led insurgency. A majority of Americans now say the war is unwinnable or not worth continuing.

Karzai said his nation is looking forward to the end of war, "so that Afghanistan is no longer a burden on the shoulder of our friends in the international community, on the shoulders of the United States and our other allies."

Hollande, the new French president, has said he will withdraw all French combat troops from Afghanistan by year's end - a full two years before the timeline agreed to by nations in the U.S.-led NATO coalition.

Before the one-hour meeting with Karzai, a senior U.S. official said President Obama would focus on planning for Afghanistan's 2014 elections, as well as the prospect of a political settlement with the Taliban.

Karzai has said repeatedly he will step down from power when his term ends in 2014, opening the way for new elections. NATO's scheduled end of the war was built around those plans, with foreign forces staying until the 2014 election but exiting the country by 2015.

Past Afghan elections were riddled with irregularities, and the U.S. applied heavy pressure to Karzai to schedule a second round of voting during the last presidential contest in 2009. The runoff was never held because Karzai's challenger pulled out, protesting what he said was an impossible level of corruption.

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[sjc_1]

I noticed the low key demeanor with the Mayor of Kabul. President Obama seems fed up with this guy, but he is all that we have in the region. Sometimes you have to deal with what you were dealt.

[stormerF69]

Is there away we can make sure Karzi leaves with out one cent of our tax payers dollars? Soon as we leave there will be a war between the suni and ***** sects and there is nothing we can do about it. I for one am tired of paying some stupid ***** not to kill each other,turn them loose and the spoils go to the victor. We need to get out and take our money with us.

[infantryman1968]

by 1pheasant1 May 21, 2012 6:52 AM EDT
He also told the American people that there would be hard days and years ahead, digging out of the Great Recession he was left with. The obstructionist in the Republican Party have made this more difficult to achieve, and they pretend that Bush's economic mess was merely a bump in the road. Short retention spans seem to rule the GOP.


LOL!


You Lie!

You and Obama have complete authority to pull the plug on Afghanistan.

[AOCGUY]

How can pheasant pull the plug? I agree Obama has some control but pheasant?

[stormerF69]

Yea the pain will be when we find out how much tax payers money Obama has promised to give the Karzai,when we leave.

[AOCGUY]

You gotta trust me on this but Karzai will be in Paris before the last soldier leaves Afghanistan.

[Dreadnut]

Liberals have become such excuse makers and excuse acceptors in regards to war.
Are they protesting Obama on his golf course like Bush at his ranch?

And where is the outrage at the treatment of prisoners in gitmo? Liberals now say, Gitmo, what's that??????

[1pheasant1]

He also told the American people that there would be hard days and years ahead, digging out of the Great Recession he was left with. The obstructionist in the Republican Party have made this more difficult to achieve, and they pretend that Bush's economic mess was merely a bump in the road. Short retention spans seem to rule the GOP.

[stormerF69]

For 2 years Obama had a super majority,yet what did he accomplish,Nothing good for the nation,unless you like more debt?

[AOCGUY]

Correction, for two years the dems had a majority in both houses. What they did not have was a filibuster proof majority in the Senate. What Obama also DID not have was a a particularly cooperative democratic presense in either house. Obama and the dems also mistakenly decided to attempt compromise which was seen correctly by the GOP as a weakness. Reality is that the dems best shot was the 2 and 1/2 months between the election and inaugeration. During that time both houses could have passed legislation including single payer, closing GITMO, etc, and have it on Obama's desk on day one. Of course they failed miserably at that.

[WorldRider]

We went to Afghanistan to eradicate AlQueda. We have largely done that. We can continue to make the terrorists lives miserable from 20,000 feet. Why on Earth are we paying the Afghan, Paki, Israeli, Eygyptian or other governments a penny? Why do we continue to stay there. We ARE Nato, and our foreign policy is a mess. Don't blame the American people for poor policy but we can blame ourselves for poor leadership.

[smittyc]

President Hollande is withdrawing 4000 "personnel" the total France forces including soldiers and others. The reason is France has a defense budget of 850 million Euros a year, and over 400 million of that budget is currently being spent in Afghanistan. The United States has 90 thousand troops, not counting other personnel. Do some math folks.

[boocbsboooooooooo]

cattiej, you're right on almost everything, except there are no good politicians. There are, but the media is paid not to speak of them. Allen West comes to mind. Only negative things are said about him. Never a mention of his service to this country. Never a mention of his true patriotism. They would rather glorify the ones robbing the nation, because they are not dumb enough to bite the hand that feeds them.

[smittyc]

Our nation has lost its way. Our leaders have forgotten who put them in office. Obama was elected president on his anti-war speeches and promises on the economy. Biden recently spoke on the economy and offered an excuse, they inherited the recession but did not mention that Obama had said he promised us he would fix it no problem. On Afghanistan as a Senator Obama opposed going to war there and on the campaign trail he ranted against the wars and promised to get us out. Our president is a liar folks, he lied and lies about everything. Obama involved our miltary in Egypt, Libya and is trying to start a war in Syria. To those American families that lost their children in Afghanistan I am sorry for your loss and apolozgize for the two faced lying President that was elected. I apologize for his shameless behavior, golf everyday and rock stars at the whitehouse every weekend while your children died in foreign wars. Somebody has to say it, Obama stinks, just my own opinion.