The United States should resist the urge to pull troops out of Afghanistan ahead of schedule due to the violence against Americans over the burning of the Holy Quran at a US military base, US Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker said on Sunday.
“Tensions are running very high here. I think we need to let things calm down, return to a more normal atmosphere, and then get on with business,” Crocker said in an interview from Kabul on CNN’s “State of the Union.” He added that a full investigation of the incident was underway at the Bagram airbase near Kabul. “This is not the time to decide that we are done here. We have got to redouble our efforts. We’ve got to create a situation that al Qaeda is not coming back,” Crocker said. “If we decide we’re tired of it, al Qaeda and the Taliban certainly aren’t,” he said. US forces are scheduled to cede the lead role in combat operations in Afghanistan next year, but will keep fighting alongside Afghan troops under American plans announced recently. The US forces have been fighting in Afghanistan since a 2001 invasion that toppled the Taliban rulers who harboured al Qaeda leaders responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States. President Barack Obama apologised on Thursday in a letter to Afghan President Hamid Karzai for the burning of copies of the Holy Quran, which he called “inadvertent” and an “error”. Crocker added that Karzai accepts both publicly and privately that the burning was inadvertent. Still, anger raged in Afghanistan for a sixth day
