Tom Donilon, former national security adviser to President Obama, on Sunday said that Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s refusal to sign a security agreement with the U.S. would be “reckless.”
“His refusal to sign at this point I think is reckless,” Donilon said on ABC’s “This Week.” “I think it’s reckless in terms of Afghanistan, and I think it also adversely impacts our ability to plan coherently and comprehensively for post-2014.”
Donilon emphasized that leaders in Afghanistan approve of the security pact.
“President Karzai should go ahead and sign the agreement. It’s been approved by a very large assembly of leaders in Afghanistan,” he said. “2,500 leaders got together, looked at the proposed agreement with the United States, after December 31, 2014, and asked — and recommended to President Karzai that he sign it.”
Without Karzai’s approval of continued American support, all 51,000 troops would have to head home by the end of 2014, which Donilon said would be a mistake.
“We think at the end of the day, it will be better to have continued support for the Afghan national forces and have a small counter-terrorism presence in Afghanistan,” he said.
Donilon: "Reckless" For Karzai Not To Sign US-Afghanistan Deal
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