U.S. troops investigate the site of a suicide attack on a NATO base in Zhari, west of Kandahar province, January 20, 2014. 
 
 WASHINGTON U.S. President Barack Obama has told the Pentagon to prepare for the possibility that the United States will not leave behind any troops in Afghanistan after its troop drawdown at the end of this year, the White House said on Tuesday. 
 
 Obama said he had given the order to the Pentagon in a phone call on Tuesday to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has refused to sign a bilateral security agreement that the United States insists it must have before agreeing to leave a contingent of troops behind. 
 
 Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was carrying the modified U.S. position to Brussels for discussion during a meeting with NATO defense ministers that starts on Wednesday. 
 
 "Specifically, President Obama has asked the Pentagon to ensure that it has adequate plans in place to accomplish an orderly withdrawal by the end of the year should the United States not keep any troops in Afghanistan after 2014," the White House said. 
 
 The United States has held out the possibility of leaving behind in Afghanistan as many as 8,000 troops after the formal drawdown at year's end. These troops would conduct counter-terrorism operations against al Qaeda targets and train Afghan forces. 
 
 Karzai's refusal to sign a security deal has frustrated the White House, which has been forced to abandon an earlier demand that the Afghan president sign the deal in weeks, not months. 
 
 Staking out a new position, the White House statement said "we will leave open the possibility of concluding a BSA (bilateral security agreement) later this year. However, the longer we go without a BSA, the more challenging it will be to plan and execute any U.S. mission." 
 
 And the longer both countries go without a security deal, "the more likely it will be that any post-2014 U.S. mission will be smaller in scale and ambition," the White House statement said. 
 
 Hagel said planning for what is known as "the zero option" is a prudent step given that Karzai has made clear he is unlikely to sign the security deal. 
 
 "As the United States military continues to move people and equipment out of the Afghan theater, our force posture over the next several months will provide various options for political leaders in the United States and NATO," Hagel said in a statement. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Susan Heavey) ||||| President Barack Obama warned Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday that he’s ordered the Defense Department to plan to withdraw all American troops by the end of the year, raising the stakes in the standoff over the two nations’ postwar security agreement. 
 
 Obama told the Afghan president by phone, the White House said, that he has ordered the Pentagon preparations because Karzai has dragged his feet for too long in waiting to sign the bilateral security agreement he negotiated with Washington and earlier put before a traditional advisory council, which endorsed it. 
 
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 “President Obama told President Karzai that because he has demonstrated that it is unlikely that he will sign the BSA, the United States is moving forward with additional contingency planning,” the White House said in a readout of the conversation between the two leaders. 
 
 Obama left the door open to a post-2014 force of American troops that could continue to train and advise the Afghan National Security Forces, the White House said, but the president appeared to make clear that his patience with Karzai is all but exhausted. 
 
 “Should we have a BSA and a willing and committed partner in the Afghan government, a limited post-2014 mission focused on training, advising and assisting Afghan forces and going after the remnants of core Al Qaeda could be in the interests of the United States and Afghanistan,” the White House said. “Therefore, we will leave open the possibility of concluding a BSA with Afghanistan later this year. However, the longer we go without a BSA, the more challenging it will be to plan and execute any U.S. mission.” 
 
 Later, at the White House, press secretary Jay Carney told reporters definitively that no security agreement meant no U.S. troops would remain in Afghanistan after Dec. 31. 
 
 “Absolutely,” Carney said. “Absent a BSA, there will not be any U.S. troops on the ground beyond the end of the year.” 
 
 Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had previously said he wanted to have a signed security agreement in hand by the time he traveled to Brussels on Tuesday for a NATO defense ministers’ meeting. Hagel said he’d execute Obama’s orders and begin the withdrawal planning effort. 
 
 “As the United States military continues to move people and equipment out of the Afghan theater, our force posture over the next several months will provide various options for political leaders in the United States and NATO,” Hagel said on Tuesday. “And during this time, DOD will still continue planning for U.S. participation in a NATO-led mission focused on training, advising and assisting Afghan security forces, as well as a narrowly focused counterterrorism mission.” 
 
 Carney told reporters that Obama and Karzai had a “fairly substantive” call and that Obama was “explicit” in delivering his message. Carney also said Obama talked about the security agreement with House Speaker John Boehner in a meeting Tuesday after Boehner and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) had both slammed Obama for ignoring the war in Afghanistan, the nation’s longest at 13 years. 
 
 “Over the last year, our commander in chief has often talked more about how we plan to leave Afghanistan than how we are going to achieve our mission,” Boehner said Monday. “We all want to bring our remaining troops home as soon as possible, but succeeding in Afghanistan is vital to our national security interests and our mission must take priority over any calendar dates. The president has an obligation to better make that case to the American people.” 
 
 Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich) has argued that the administration should just bypass Karzai altogether and make clear that it would deal with his successor. The challenge is that with several presidential candidates, the likelihood of a runoff and no certainty Kabul’s new president would be any more willing to sign it, no one knows when a security agreement might be signed, even after Obama’s declaration Tuesday that the U.S. is willing to wait. 
 
 Levin announced Tuesday that he has scheduled a hearing on Afghanistan for March 10, featuring the top U.S. commander there, Marine Gen. Joe Dunford. 
 
 American national security officials have said the security agreement isn’t just essential to provide for a post-2014 U.S. troop presence. The other nations involved with the Afghan War also need clarity about their roles and missions — as well as the legal protections and other policies — before they can commit to leaving behind units of their own. 
 
 The Obama administration is depending upon international allies to share the burden for supporting Afghanistan in the long term. Kabul cannot afford its military forces as they’re currently constructed and although U.S. commanders say the Afghan troops and police are steadily improving, they continue to need help with key aspects of combat and preserving security. 
 
 “They have to be more than tactics,” said Lt. Gen. Mark Milley, a top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. “In order to sustain yourself over time, you have to have institutional systems that are in place where they can, in fact, replenish their forces, they can do personnel management, they can do budgeting, they can do intelligence operations, infuse all types of intelligence, where they can train pilots and conduct rotary-wing and fixed-wing operations.” 
 
 Milley also told reporters at the Pentagon last month that the Afghan army could conduct basic training and was good at small-unit actions but needed to establish the ability to remain a viable force over the long term. 
 
 “They’ve got to be able to sustain themselves logistically,” he said. “They’ve got to be able to get spare parts and run entire distribution systems, so vehicles and weapons systems and other pieces of equipment don’t break down. We’ve got to get their special operations capabilities, which are very good, but get them up to a very high level. You’ve got to develop a ministerial-level capability in order to do budgeting and planning and programming and those sorts of things. 
 
 A post-American security implosion in Afghanistan not only could waste all the effort building up the government, security experts warn, but also create ungoverned spaces that Al Qaeda or other terrorists could use as safe havens to plan an attack on the West. 
 
 Obama says a post-2014 detachment of U.S. troops would enable commanders to continue pursuing terrorists as well as helping the Afghans. But the Pentagon would agree to leave troops in Afghanistan only if they’re immune from Afghan justice and it has codified other policies about the nature of their presence there — plus lawmakers would not go along without a BSA, Carney said. 
 
 “It’s inconceivable, I think, to us,” Carney said, “that leaders in Congress would allow for a U.S. troop presence without a signed bilateral security agreement in Afghanistan.” 
 
 CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report misidentified Lt. Gen. Mark Milley. ||||| The Pentagon has begun contingency plans to pull all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan. 
 
 U.S. soldiers inspect the scene of a suicide attack outside a base in Zhari district, Kandahar province, Afghanistan, on Jan. 20. (Photo: Javed Tanveer, AFP/Getty Images) Story Highlights Without a security agreement, all U.S. troops will be withdrawn by end of the year 
 
 Obama has instructed the Pentagon to make contingency plans 
 
 Karzai has said his successor should decide after spring elections 
 
 WASHINGTON — With no sign of a deal for a post-2014 security agreement with Afghanistan on the horizon, President Obama on Tuesday offered a blunt warning to Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai that time is running out to forge a deal to keep U.S. troops beyond the end of the year. 
 
 Obama, who spoke by phone with Karzai on Tuesday, has asked the Pentagon to ensure that plans are in place to accomplish an orderly withdrawal by the end of the year should the two countries not forge a new bilateral security agreement (BSA), according to the White House. 
 
 A major stipulation for the U.S. is that any security agreement continue to offer U.S. troops immunity from prosecution under Afghan laws. Without such an agreement, the Obama administration would not allow troops to remain in the country beyond 2014. 
 
 "President Obama told President Karzai that because he has demonstrated that it is unlikely that he will sign the BSA, the United States is moving forward with additional contingency planning," the White House said in a statement. 
 
 Obama, however, also told Karzai that if a BSA can be reached, he remains ready to keep a yet-to-be-determined number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014 to focus on training, advising and assisting Afghan forces and going after the remnants of core al-Qaeda. 
 
 The frank exchange with the Afghan president comes as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel prepares to head to Brussels to meet with his NATO counterparts, where planning for post-2014 force levels in Afghanistan is on the agenda. 
 
 While the White House said a deal can still be reached this year, it suggested the longer negotiations drag on, the smaller the U.S. presence may be. Obama also discussed his administration's efforts to reach an agreement with Afghanistan with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, during a White House meeting shortly after his call with Karzai, said White House press secretary Jay Carney. 
 
 "The longer we go without a BSA, the more challenging it will be to plan and execute any U.S. mission," Obama said. "Furthermore, the longer we go without a BSA, the more likely it will be that any post-2014 U.S. mission will be smaller in scale and ambition." 
 
 Hagel said Tuesday that the Pentagon has begun planning for a complete withdrawal of troops by year's end. 
 
 CLOSE Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel reinforced the Pentagon's ongoing plan to save money by calling for the Army to shrink to its smallest size in decades, 440,000 to 450,000 soldiers by 2019. VPC 
 
 "This is a prudent step, given that President Karzai has demonstrated that it is unlikely that he will sign the Bilateral Security Agreement, which would provide DoD personnel with critical protections and authorities after 2014," Hagel said in a statement. 
 
 Last year, Hagel said military planners needed to know by Jan. 1 if an agreement would allow U.S. troops to stay in the country past 2014. 
 
 He later hedged on that, saying there was some flexibility in planning. 
 
 The inability for Obama administration to forge an agreement with Iraq that included immunity from prosecution for the U.S. military led to the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from that country at the end of 2011. 
 
 There are currently 33,600 U.S. troops in Afghanistan,according to the Pentagon, and Defense Department advisers have drawn plans to leave as many as 10,000 U.S. troops in the country starting next year. 
 
 The White House first publicly floated the possibility of a "zero option" in Afghanistan in early 2013 to prod Karzai to get a deal done and has repeatedly underscored that the without a new agreement the U.S. and international security forces will have to withdraw all troops when the war formally ends at the end of 2014. 
 
 Karzai, however, has said that his successor should decide whether to sign the pact after Afghanistan holds elections this spring. 
 
 Republicans have stepped up criticism of Obama, who they say has been detached on the issue. The last time the White House publicized a call between Obama and Karzai was June. 
 
 "For the life of me, I can't figure out why the president hasn't taken credit for these victories," said Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said on Monday. "The gains since 2009 are three-fold — strategic, diplomatic and moral." 
 
 The White House pushed backed on Tuesday against suggestions that Obama hasn't been forceful enough on the issue. 
 
 "It' a preposterous suggestion," Carney said. "The decision of President Karzai to indicate that it is unlikely that he'll sign the BSA that his government negotiated is obviously his decision. But it's not because we haven't made it clear that it ought to be signed." 
 
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– President Obama scolded Hamid Karzai by phone today and warned him that the US is preparing to bring home all its troops at the end of the year, instead of leaving a contingency force behind, reports Politico. Karzai refuses to sign a security deal that, among other things, would grant those troops immunity, reports USA Today. He's already blown by one US deadline to sign the accord, and Obama told him that American patience is running out. "We will leave open the possibility of concluding a BSA (bilateral security agreement) later this year," said a White House statement. "However, the longer we go without a BSA, the more challenging it will be to plan and execute any US mission." Up to 8,000 troops could be part of such a contingency force, reports Reuters. Its main duties would be to conduct counter-terror missions and train Afghan troops.