Canberra, Oct 24(ANI): Former United States Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry believes that setting up a national security force will cost the Afghan government almost three times as much as it collects in revenue.
Eikenberry, who is currently visiting Australia, said that the near seven billion dollar annual cost for the force would dwarf the 2.5 billion dollars the Afghan government receives in revenue.
"There's a significant shortfall and that will be incumbent then upon the US and our allies and other countries to pay for those resource shortfalls," Xinhua quoted Eikenberry, as saying.
US President Barack Obama had announced in June 2011 that troop withdrawals would begin in Afghanistan, where Operation Enduring Freedom has been fought since 2001.
Obama had also confirmed that all the 33,000 additional US forces he ordered to Afghanistan in December 2009 would be home within 15 months.
The US plans to hand control to a beefed-up Afghan army supported by a much smaller western contingent of perhaps 10,000 to 20,000 soldiers, after most western troops leave in 2014. (ANI)
|
|
Comments:
