CNN 2010-11-23

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Oh, right. I’m back. We are grateful for that introduction and we're grateful you're checking out CNN Student News today. We have a very short week for you this week -- just two shows -- so let's go ahead and get them started.

First up, figuring out a way forward in Afghanistan: the focus of a NATO meeting this past weekend. NATO stands for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's a group of nearly 30 countries; its main goal is to keep those countries safe and free. That is why the alliance is taking part in the Afghanistan war. That conflict seems to be getting more intense. The U.S. is sending a group of battle tanks -- like the ones you see here -- to Afghanistan for the first time since the war started. This is an escalation¹ of the war, and it'll give U.S. troops more firepower in their fight against the Taliban. Suzanne Malveaux covered this NATO meeting. She explains the leaders there weren't focused so much on the present as they are on the future.

It's the closest thing to an exit strategy President Obama could get.

We agreed that early 2011 will mark the beginning of a transition to Afghan responsibility, and we adopted the goal of Afghan forces taking the lead for security across the country by the end of 2014.

U.S. and NATO troops remaining in Afghanistan would be focused on training Afghan security forces. Afghan leader Hamid Karzai signed the pact² earlier with NATO allies, expressing optimism.

We are confident that the transition will succeed to the Afghan authority, leadership and ownership.

But the agreement is, at best, a goal. Privately³, there is real skepticism that the Afghan government will be ready to provide security and services to its people. The new NATO agreement bluntly states for the Afghan government, corruption⁴ remains⁵ a central challenge to be addressed.

We must be guided by realities, not schedules.

Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev also suggested Afghanistan may not be ready.

Whether it's feasible in the forthcoming future, I don't know. I have some doubts on that.

President Obama himself seemed to leave the door open about whether U.S. troops would still be fighting in Afghanistan after 2014. When asked if he'd keep U.S. combat troops there after the proposed deadline, he said:” So I will always do what's necessary to keep the American people safe, and maybe that will be the case in 2014.” But President Obama is eager to get U.S. forces out of this unpopular war. He has already pledged to start pulling out American troops in July of next year. NATO allies are even less patient.

By the end of next year, we have set the goal to have 300,000 Afghan soldiers and Afghan police.

Several countries have already said their troops will not remain in combat indefinitely. A senior British official said British Prime Minister David Cameron repeated here that no matter how violent Afghanistan is at the end of 2014, the British will end combat operations by the next year.