Civil War expected with NATO withdrawal in 2014

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai attended a NATO summit in Lisbon, Portugal this past week to discuss the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. An agreement was discussed during the summit and plans for NATO to completely withdraw from Afghanistan by 2014 have been intitiated. Although several political workers in Afghanistan have commented about the possibility of a civil war spiraling from the withdrawal, Karzai is expected to take on the Taliban alone by 2014. Concerns that Taliban forces will completely overtake Kandahar have been rumored. "It's 100 percent possible that there will be a civil war," said Pida Muhammad, a worker at the Kandahar governor's palace. If you're from Kandahar and you go to a district like that, you'll be slaughtered," said Pida, from the governor's office. Yet within the community there are still people who have faith in Afghan military soldiers. "They have to increase the number of Afghan recruits and they have to be better equipped. If our own government forces are strengthened enough, maybe the Taliban can't take over," said Abdul and area businessman. President Obama will review his Afghanistan war strategy and the timetables which are critical for the war next month. "U.S. and NATO leaders agreed at a summit in Lisbon this week to accept Afghan President Hamid Karzai's timetable to release security in 2014 to Afghan forces. There are over 250,000 Afghan military forces ready to take on the responsibility of defending Afghanistan but the plan is to have at least 300,000 soldiers trained for the battlefield before NATO withdraws completely.