On air at 1100GMT: Is now the time to pull out of Afghanistan?
| 09:36 UK time, Wednesday, 11 May 2011
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This topic was discussed on World Have Your Say on 11 May 2011. Listen to the programme.
"Now is not the time to blink", so says General James Bucknall, the commander of British troops in the country. In his first interview since becoming
second in command of the International Security and Assistance Force (isaf) he says or it risks a resurgance of Taliban.
Since the death of Osma bin Laden a week ago there have been some calls for the US to pull funds and . To put it into context the US has been bankrolling the effort with up to $100bn (£61bn) a year.
The Guardian quotes a military source that doesn't want to be named as saying.
"Afghanistan has been the centre of the world for the past 10 years. It isn't anymore and the purse strings from donors will soon tighten. The international military drawdown will begin. There will then be a limited period where there is some money available for non-military efforts.
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"After this, many Afghans fear they will then be abandoned again. The international community will say 'job done' and it will be case of presenting it as "Afghan-good enough."
But that doesn't wash with many US voters. They feel that U.S. troops should be brought home from Afghanistan right away or a timetable should be set to bring them back within a year.
Many of the views , sum up that view
"We could never establish true democracy in Afghanistan. For millennium they lived the way they are living. We could never change that. However I would like to see some foreign aid going there with the hope that if young generation get better education they might change their own country."
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Friskyfeline commented on the Huffington Post
"it is impossible to pull out of AfghanistaÂn at this point no matter how much people want this. pulling out would leave a vacuum in that country which will ultimately be filled by the extremist. and for those of you who are going to say who cares please review history. this is what the Russians did and as a result Al-Q was born. a volatile AfghanistaÂn with a nuclear Pakistan is not a good mix. there is no way for us to leave this country. even if we pull out many of our troops we will continue to have a presence in AfghanistaÂn."
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Senator John Kerry, who ran for President in 2004, is one of the
Instead, the Massachusetts senator is calling for the smallest U.S. presence possible that contains terror threats while preparing Afghanistan for the 2014 target date for withdrawing American forces.
Now that bin Laden is dead, does that mean the threat is diminished and troops should be withdrawn? Or is it short sighted?
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