NATO: Afghanistan Will Need "Decades" of Additional "Support"
Top NATO official Sir Simon Gass indicated today the alliance plans a more or less open-ended commitment to funding the Karzai government, saying he believed the nation will require “decades” of support beyond 2014. - Sir Simon insisted that NATO would have to learn the mistake from the failed Soviet occupation — apparently not the “don’t occupy Afghanistan” mistake. Instead, he sees the mistake coming three years after the Soviet troops left, when they withdrew funding from the Najibullah regime. And there appears to be no chance of that happening here, with the Karzai government expected to be on the dole more or less forever, needing $7 billion annually in foreign funding just to prop up their military.