Press TV
January 1, 2014
US seeks ‘long-term interests’ in Afghanistan
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America’s pressure on Afghanistan to sign a bilateral security deal, which authorizes an enduring US military presence, indicates that the US invaded the country “with long-term geostrategic interests,” says an anti-war activist.
As the 2014 pullout deadline of US forces from Afghanistan draws closer, the Pentagon has urged the Afghan government to sign a controversial security deal which President Hamid Karzai has so far refused to sign it demanding, among others, that the US military should first agree to a halt in airstrikes and night raids on Afghan homes killing civilians.
“The US has been much more involved geopolitically in Afghanistan than it’s ever been willing to acknowledged,” said Rick Rozoff from Stop NATO International.
The US seeks to keep forces in Afghanistan for its own “geopolitical interest,” Rozoff told Press TV in a phone interview on Tuesday. “The purpose is not to ensure the security and the wellbeing of the Afghan people,” he noted.
Despite pressures from Washington, Kabul has declined to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), which will allow thousands of US troops to stay in Afghanistan for up to a decade beyond 2014.
Washington has repeatedly said if the deal is not signed, it will have to pull its entire force of some 44,500 troops out of Afghanistan by the end 2014, warning that the pullout could destabilize the war-stricken country.
The US efforts to force the Afghan government to sign the agreement come as a recent CNN/ORC International survey shows America’s longest war has become its most unpopular one as well.
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