Gates Book Fuels Distrust between Afghan & U.S.

The newly released memoir by Robert Gates entitled Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War is fueling some distrust between Afghan officials and the United States. There are passages that reference attempts to diminish Karza's chances of reelection in 2009. High-level Afghan officials have used the book to bolster their argument that some new conditions should be met prior to the Afghans signing the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA). The book has been cited as an additional area of friction for the signing of the BSA by a former ambassador but that it shouldn't be cause for excessive delay or non-signing of the agreement. Read more in "Memoir complicates Afghan security deal", DEFCON Hill Defense Blog, January 12, 2014.