Thursday, November 21, 2013

New Pact Has US Troops in Afghanistan Till 2024; May Conduct Home Raids, Cannot Be Prosecuted

U.S. and Afghan negotiators have reached a security deal that will keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan through 2024, while keeping billions of American aid dollars pumping into the country, the Newser website reports today (November 21, 2013).

Afghan President Hamid Karzai today presented the deal to Afghanistan's grand council of elders, urging them to accept it.

In hopes of winning over the council, President Obama sent a letter vowing to respect "Afghan sovereignty" and to raid Afghan homes only under "extraordinary circumstances."

But the U.S. will retain the power to conduct those raids, and its troops will be immune from Afghan prosecution -- two key concessions that the U.S. was not able to secure in similar negotiations with Iraq, causing the withdrawal of U.S. troops from that country in 2011.

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