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Karzai Govt will collapse within weeks of international forces pullout, warns Miliband | British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has warned
British opponents of the Afghan war that the Hamid Karzai-led government could collapse within weeks if NATO pulled out its troops now. "If international forces
leave, you can choose a time - five minutes, 24 hours or seven days - but the
insurgent forces will overrun those forces that are prepared to put up resistance
and we would be back to square one," the Guardian quoted Miliband, as saying at
the end of a visit to Kabul for the presidential inauguration of Hamid Karzai.
Miliband added that Afghans were "sad that they need anyone, but they are passionate
that my goodness they do - because if we weren't here their country would be rolled
over". Admitting that the public anxiety over Afghanistan is growing in Britain
as a result of rising casualties, Miliband said leaving the war at this stage
could have even more dangerous consequences. "Afghanistan wasn't on the front
pages until the last six months for obvious reasons. Now for tragic reasons there
is a lot of interest. What we have to do is explain to people that the costs of
staying are real but they are less than the costs of leaving," he said. Miliband
said Karzai's estimation of a three- to five-year deadline for the handover of
security control to Afghan forces would not mean an end to western involvement.
"My argument is not stay or go, my argument is we stay for a purpose, for a period,
for progress. Artificial timetables just give succour to your enemy. We are going
to transition, and transition is a better word than exit," he pointed out. |
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