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Bush Lukewarm on Troop Request
Tuesday, January 29, 2002
By Sandra Sobieraj
The Associated Press

The White House also aims to print and deliver 10 million science, reading and math textbooks in time for the start of the Afghan school year in March.

WASHINGTON -- AP
President Bush promised Afghan leader Hamid Karzai a “lasting partnership” including economic aid and training for a national military on Monday but turned aside a request for U.S. troops as part of a peacekeeping force.

Americans will help build a new Afghanistan “free from terror, free from war and free from want,” Bush told Karzai as the tri-colored flag of the visitor flew in the White House Rose Garden for the first time in nearly four decades.

The president said the United States would help train a national military and police force for the central Asian nation that has weathered Soviet invasion, warlords, the terrorist-harboring Taliban and, most recently, battering U.S. military strikes.

Bush was not receptive to Karzai's interest in having U.S. forces remain in Afghanistan as part of a multinational peacekeeping force.

Ruling out such a direct role, Bush said the United States will support the international security force and stands ready to help if its “troops get in trouble.”

“Better yet than peacekeepers ... let's have Afghanistan have her own military,” Bush said.

He pledged a $50 million loan to help Afghanistan attract U.S. business investment and $3 million from the Labor Department to create jobs.
(More: Tribune-Chronicle.com News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

Dan