US to stay in Afghanistan until 2014

A media report says that President Barack Obama’s administration is moving away from a previous pledge to start withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan by July 2011.

Senior US officials have told McClatchy newspapers that the new policy will be made pubic soon during an upcoming conference of NATO countries in Lisbon.

The decision comes after US officials realized that conditions in the war-ravaged were unlikely to allow a speedy withdrawal.

The developments also come as Taliban militants were making inroads in different parts of Afghanistan.

According to the report, the Pentagon has also decided not to announce specific dates for handing the security responsibility of several Afghan provinces to local officials.

The Obama administration hopes to introduce a new timeline that calls for the withdrawal of US-led forces from Afghanistan by 2014, it added.

“Of course, we are not going to fully transition to the Afghans by July 2011,” said one senior administration official. “Right now, we think we can start in 2011 and fully transition sometime in 2014.”

The Pentagon has publicly announced its intention for an extended stay in Iraq as well.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that the Pentagon was ready to keep American forces in Iraq beyond 2011, should the Baghdad government request it.

“We’re ready to have that discussion if and when they want to raise it with us,” Gates said on Tuesday.

The report also comes days after Commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan General David Petraeus admitted that progress in the Afghan war has been as slow as watching grass grow or paint dry.

“It’s not a conventional battle. It is slow progress. You take steps forward but you also take steps backward,” Petraeus told NPR in an interview.

This comes as Afghan President Hamid Karzai has recently criticized the current strategy of foreign troops in the country, saying it targets innocent civilians.

NATO has increased its deployment in Afghanistan to 150,000 troops. Despite the troop surge, the security situation there has been at its worst since the 2001 US-led invasion of the country.

Meanwhile, the US-led foreign forces in Afghanistan have launched a massive military operation in the southern province of Kandahar, inflicting extensive damage particularly on civilian property.

The Western military alliance has announced the test of new powerful weapons during the operation.

Witnesses said NATO bombs and missiles have damaged villagers’ houses and farms which are the residents’ only source of income.

The US military adventurism comes as the United Nations announced recently that Afghan civilian deaths had soared by over 30 percent in 2010 compared to the same period last year.

At least 633 foreign troops have lost their lives in Afghanistan so far, making 2010 the deadliest for US-led forces since 2001.

The rising casualties of the US-led foreign forces have increased opposition to the Afghan war in the countries which have contributed troops to the mission.