Afghan lawmakers say full US exit would be ‘disaster’

The White House is currently considering its options for the
U.S. force levels in Afghanistan over the next two years and post-2014, which
reports have said range from a few thousand troops to as many as 20,000.
There are currently about 66,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is in Washington this week,
meeting with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
and President Obama.

{mosads}Back in Afghanistan, lawmakers had an angry reaction
to the Obama administration suggesting all U.S. troops might leave, according to
Reuters.

“If Americans pull out all of their troops without a plan,
the civil war of the 1990s would repeat itself,” said Naeem Lalai, an
outspoken lawmaker from Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban.

“It (full withdrawal) will pave the way for the Taliban
to take over militarily,” Lalai told Reuters.

NATO troops are planning to draw down and hand off security
as the Afghan forces ramp up to 350,000, but there are questions about how
ready the Afghan troops and police will be to operate on their own.

Obama and Karzai signed an agreement last year that could maintain
a U.S. presence through 2024, but there are still many details that must be
hashed out — including troop levels.

The United States had also considered leaving troops in Iraq
after 2011, but the Obama administration was unable to reach an agreement with
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who refused to give U.S. troops immunity
in Iraqi courts.

The Afghan government is seen as being more open to keeping
a U.S. presence, which would include troops for both special operations and
training purposes.

“If American forces leave Afghanistan without properly
training the Afghan security forces, and equipping them, it would be a
disaster,” parliament member Mirwais Yasini told Reuters.