Blotz confirmed that "There has been no timetable yet."
In regard to transferring security control to Afghan forces, he said, "We will not [proceed] according to a fixed timetable, it will be carried out based on conditions to be achieved over the next couple of years." [4]
On November 11, Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada spoke on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Seoul, South Korea and said that "he's decided"to keep troops in Afghanistan in a noncombat training role after Canada's combat mission ends in 2011."
Associated Press cited a senior Canadian government official verifying that his nation "will keep 750 military trainers and 250 support staff in Afghanistan until 2014"." [5]
Canadian troops in Afghanistan
A similarly bleak perspective on any withdrawal or beginning of one next year was offered on the preceding day by the commander of British forces in southern Afghanistan, Major General Nick Carter, who "gave a devastating assessment of the war effort in Afghanistan."
Carter admitted that "In my tour I lost 302 soldiers. Most of them American. The cost in blood and treasure has been enormous." He added that NATO wouldn't know if it was winning whatever that word signifies in a war already in its tenth year and escalating to new heights by the day until June of 2011, "when the fighting season begins again" and the Atlantic Alliance and the Pentagon can "compare Taliban attacks with this year." [6]
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