10 Years into Afghanistan War, U.S. is Only Halfway Done

The plan now is to continue training local Afghan security forces so that they can protect themselves after the final troop withdrawal in 2014. However, there are concerns on both sides that the time frame is unrealistic.           

"It is entirely possible that there may still be U.S. forces and other international forces here [Afghanistan)] after 2014," Ryan Crocker, the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, told The Times (of London).

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This is because the U.S. and Afghan officials are currently meeting in secret about a long-term security plan that could keep America in Afghanistan not just for further years, but for decades.

These negotiations began in May, and the U.S. would like to leave a small force of troops, as well as spies and some air support in the country, with Afghanistan's permission. The residual U.S. presence would help Afghan security personnel combat insurgents while protecting citizens.

The United States could also use Afghanistan as a launch point for drone strikes on militants in Pakistan and elsewhere.

In responding to questions about the talks, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton recent said that there would be no permanent bases in Afghanistan:

"There are U.S. troops in various countries for some considerable lengths of time which are not there permanently," a U.S. official told The Guardian.

That's some tricky rhetoric. Essentially, the State Department only considers a country occupied by American personnel if there is a permanent military base. It still counts as a total withdrawal if there are only "semi-permanent" installations.

Additionally, by not calling the soldiers "combat troops" the U.S. can claim that American forces have gone home. However, in a country where insurgents attack both government installations and civilians nearly every day, U.S. soldiers will undoubtedly see combat.

And while the intelligence operations and the troops left behind to support and train Afghan security officers don't count as being in combat either, that doesn't mean they aren't actively fighting an enemy through different means.

The United Kingdom, whose military provides 10,000 of the 30,000 coalition troops in Afghanistan, already said in September that it would stay on after 2014.