Afghan president says US wants to keep 9 bases

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) The U.S. wants to keep nine bases in Afghanistan after American combat troops withdraw in 2014 and the Afghan government will let them as long as it gets "security and economic guarantees," President Hamid Karzai said Thursday in his first public offer in talks about the future relationship between the two uneasy allies.

U.S. officials have made no final announcement about how many troops might remain in Afghanistan after 2014, although they have said as many as many as 12,000 U.S. and coalition forces could remain to train and advise Afghans and continue counterterrorism operations against al-Qaida and other extremists.

The Afghan government would have to approve any such decision, but months of negotiations over a bilateral security agreement have been troubled with disagreements over handing over detainees and anger over alleged misbehavior by American troops.

Karzai has made many statements about the issue but gave his first specific statement about bases at a ceremony at Kabul University.

"We are giving the bases, nine bases they want from Afghanistan in all of Afghanistan," he said.

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20130509/AS--Afghanistan/

####### Obama? You got Osama, throw a victory party on an aircraft in the Indian Ocean, declare mission accomplished and bring the boys and girls back home. Edited May 9, 2013 by The Patriot