NATO expects decision on size of post 2014-Afghan force "very soon"

03/04/13: Reuters reports NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Monday that the Alliance expects a decision by the middle of this year on the size of a training force to be kept in Afghanistan once most foreign troops leave in 2014.  The US Department of Defense has said a NATO-led training force of between 8,000 and 12,000 was under consideration.  Questions remain over how well Afghan security forces will be able to tackle Islamist Taliban insurgents in the face of intensifying violence and how the West can justify financial support for a force the United Nations has accused of torture.  “I would expect [the size of the force] to be finalized very soon because we also need to start planning,” Rasmussen said after talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul.