President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan told US Defense Secretary Robert Gates that Afghanistan will not be able to fund its own military services for the next fifteen to twenty years. Karzai has asked for the aid of the US in hopes that they will give him money so he can pay for the troop’s services and materials that his military may need such as guns, food, first aid or vehicles. Karzai came to the United States with this appeal just a couple days before the United States shipped out nearly thirty thousand troops to Afghanistan. Although Afghanistan cannot completely fund its own military, Karzai stated that they would still give as much money as they could towards the military instead of making the US be the lone financial provider. Within the next decade Afghanistan authorities should have control of all of the critical areas in Iraq and most of the country itself. President Obama wants to pull the US troops out in 2011 but by doing so it leaves the training of Iraqi soldiers unfinished and just another problem President Karzai has to deal with.
By:Brandon Mansfield
