US wants to act as Asia ‘policeman’

US wants to act as Asia ‘policeman’

The United States wants to keep its forces in Afghanistan beyond 2014 in order “to establish its geo-strategic hegemony” and “act like a policeman in the region,” says Naveed Ahmad, an investigative journalist and academic in Islamabad.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his national security council accused Washington on Sunday of cutting military supplies, including fuel, to Afghanistan in an attempt to pressure the Afghan government to sign a controversial security deal.

Karzai has refused to sign the bilateral security agreement with Washington, saying US troops do not have the right to raid Afghans’ homes and if they do, there will be no agreement.

If signed, the agreement will allow thousands of US troops to stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014. It also gives them immunity from prosecution under Afghan law.

“The reason for the United States to be so aggressive with Afghanistan and so impatient with the defense deal with Afghanistan is very simple. Over the past ten years or so or even more, the United States and NATO troops have failed to reach a sufficient, sustainable, and stable security situation in Afghanistan,” said Ahmad in a phone interview with Press TV on Monday.

“The United States wants its troops, about 15,000 to 20,000 troops, in some bases in Afghanistan … to establish its geo-strategic hegemony and continue to act like a policeman in the region,” he added.

“It’s more for the United States’ own internal, political, and strategic reasons that the United States wants bases and troops beyond 2014 in Afghanistan and for that” Washington is ready “to compromise the sovereignty of Afghanistan, which they have already done,” Ahmad pointed out.