In total there are over 150,000 foreign troops in the country, 130,000 now under NATO command.
The commander of the NATO Training Mission - Afghanistan, U.S. Lieutenant General William Caldwell, announced on January 5 that the Western military bloc's spending on building a U.S. and NATO proxy military in Afghanistan will total $20 billion for last year and this.
"The $20 billion for 2010 and 2011 is paying for training, equipment and infrastructure. The figure is a large increase over the $20 billion spent between 2003 and 2009."
Caldwell also confirmed that "the NATO training mission would remain as long as necessary, but at least until 2016, when it expects to finish developing the air force."
"We're not leaving. If anything, our organization will probably grow a little bit more in size." [10]
On January 12 the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, told a press conference in Washington, D.C. that violence in Afghanistan will continue to rise beyond its already unprecedented scale in the spring when the fighting season begins anew.
In his latest monthly press conference on January 24, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen concurred, stating:
"I do not expect 2011 to be easy. We will continue to drive deep into insurgent territory. And we expect continued violence as the enemy fights back."
In his January 25 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama employed similar language - "There will be tough fighting ahead" - though he buried the topic of the world's largest and longest war at the bottom of his speech under an avalanche of platitudes like American family, Sputnik moment, poised for progress, the future is ours to win, our free enterprise system is what drives innovation, what Americans have done for over 200 years: reinvented ourselves and others being polished for his reelection campaign next year.
As of the 24th of this month, traditionally a quiet one on the war front, the U.S. and NATO had already lost 27 soldiers. A NATO air strike killed three Afghan policemen earlier in the month, following similar incidents on December 8 and 16 when eight Afghan soldiers were killed in two bombing runs. On January 15 a U.S. soldier shot and killed an Afghan soldier.
Two days later an Afghan soldier killed an Italian serviceman and wounded another. The Italian soldier was the 36th lost in Afghanistan. Less than a week later a Polish soldier was killed in eastern Afghanistan, the 23rd Polish soldier to die in the country.
Early in the month three Afghan civilians, including a student, were killed in a NATO night raid in Ghazni province, sparking a protest by hundreds of people.
Yet according to Admiral Mullen, "We must prepare ourselves for more violence and more casualties in coming months."
While in Afghanistan two weeks ago, Vice President Joseph Biden affirmed that "the United States is prepared to stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014, if Afghans wanted it." [11]
Days later NATO commander General Petraeus stated "Some international troops would stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014," as last November's NATO summit declaration "said the process would be conditions-based, not calendar-driven." [12]
"US Vice President Joseph Biden, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and some other world leaders have promised their troops will stay in Afghanistan even after the agreed timeline." [13]
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