WASHINGTON - Maintaining that the United States is committed to execute complete security transition to Afghan forces at the end of 2014, the White House on Wednesday asserted that any presence of the US troops after that would be only at invitation of the Afghan government.
"Any post-2014 presence would of course be at the invitation of the Afghan government, and would ensure that we will be able to target terrorists and support a sovereign Afghan government so that our enemies cannot outlast us," the White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney, told reporters.

On 2014, the President will make his decisions on the size and shape of its post-September 2012 presence, after the reduction of the surge forces, at the appropriate time in consultation with its Afghan and NATO partners, he said.

"As established in Lisbon at NATO and as made clear through the President's Afghanistan policy, one, we are in the process of drawing down the surge. And by the end of 2014, we will have turned over full security lead to Afghan forces," Carney said.

The White House spokesman was responding to questions about statement given by a top US commander in Afghanistan that US troops in Afghanistan could remain in the country even after 2014.

"We have made clear all along that much as in Iraq when we turned over full security lead to the Iraqi forces that would be part of a process that may include troops in support. And make no mistake -- and I have an announcement to make, which is that we have met the commitment to reduce by the end of this year our forces by 10,000 in Afghanistan, as we begin to reduce the surge forces, as the President committed to do," Carney said.

"We will continue that process, and when the surge forces are out between that end date, which I guess is September of next year, through the end of 2014, there will be a continued reduction in U.S. forces as we turn over more and more of the country to Afghan security lead," said the White House official.