Secretary Robert Gates made an unannounced visit to Kabul today (ironically, Al Roker is also in town) to reassure the Afghan government that our commitment to them is strong.  In return, President Hamid Karzai, who has come under fire since his recent re-election for potentially unfair electoral practices said that while his government intends to take over security in the country within five years they wouldn’t be able to fund a full security apparatus for 15 more years.  You can see the whole story here.

So the question is where does that leave us?  President Obama in his post-Thanksgiving address on Afghanistan said that forces would pull out in July 2011.  He seems pretty firm on that.  Robert Gibbs has seemed firm on that.  But Gates and Secretary Hillary Clinton have tried to downplay the significance of the date saying it isn’t a hard and fast rule.  Does Karzai’s announcement mean that even though forces are out of the country (or at least the majority of them) we will still be sending millions, if not billions, of dollars to Afghanistan to fund their security forces for the next decade?

For a country that needs to seriously look at putting a dent in our deficit that probably isn’t the best financial scenario - but would it be better that a potentially disastrous relationship develop between Afghanistan and future investors?  Perhaps it’s a no-win on this one.