STORY TAKEN FROM USATODAY.COM
CHICAGO — Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, gave special thanks to the American people for shouldering much of the financial burden in the decade-old Afghanistan War.
“Mr. President, I am bringing to you and to the people of the United States the gratitude of the Afghan people for the support that your taxpayer money has provided Afghanistan for the past decade and the difference it has made to the building of the Afghan people,” Karzai said.
President Obama and Karzai met face to face on the sidelines of the NATO summit for more than an hour this morning. At the end of their talks, the two proclaimed that the decade-old war is now heading into a new phase.
Obama flew to Afghanistan earlier this month to announce the end of the U.S. combat mission in 2014 and to sign a strategic agreement with Karzai that would ensure the Afghans assistance in training their military until 2024.
“The world is behind this strategy we’ve laid out,” Obama said.
The president will be looking to shore up financial commitments — particularly for training Afghan security forces – from alliance members during two days of meetings in Chicago. NATO gets set to withdraw all of its combat troops from the country in 2014.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that while the combat stage is winding down, alliance countries remain committed to Afghanistan. His comments came one day after newly elected French President Francois Hollande reiterated to Obama that he will stand by his campaign pledge to withdraw all French combat troops from Afghanistan by year’s end — two years before the timeline agreed to by NATO members.
Hollande has stated that France would be prepared to support Afghanistan in a different way, Rasmussen noted.
“There will be no rush for the exits,” Rasmussen said. “We will stay committed to operation in Afghanistan and see it through to a successful end.”
Obama said there are still tough days ahead in Afghanistan.
“Both of us recognize that we still have a lot of work to do,” Obama said. “The loss of life continues in Afghanistan. There will be hard days ahead, but we’re confident that we’re on the right track.”