White House: Troop pullout still set for July 2011
Published:Monday | June 21, 2010 | 12:00 AM
WASHINGTON (AP):
The Obama administration reaffirmed yesterday that it will begin pulling United States troops out of Afghanistan next summer, despite reservations among top generals that absolute deadlines are a mistake.
US President Barack Obama's chief of staff said an announced plan to begin bringing forces home in July 2011 still holds.
"That's not changing. Everybody agreed on that date," Rahm Emanuel said, adding by name the top three officials overseeing the policy girding the war: General David Petraeus, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen.
Petraeus, the war's top military boss, said last week that he would recommend delaying the pullout if conditions in Afghanistan warranted it. Days after the date was announced in December, Gates pointedly said it was not a deadline.
Emanuel's remarks reflect the White House view that Obama must offer a war-weary American public and Congress a promise that the nearly nine-year war is not open-ended. The problem, congressional Republicans and some military leaders say, is that a fixed date encourages the Taliban-led insurgency and undermines US leverage with Afghan leaders.
Gates pledged yesterday that some troops would begin to leave in 13 months, but he was more cautious.
Withdrawal pace
"We clearly understand that in July of 2011, we begin to draw down our forces," Gates said. "The pace with which we draw down and how many we draw down is going to be conditions-based."
Uniformed and civilian defence leaders accepted the announcement of a date to begin leaving as a condition of Obama's major expansion of the war. Obama ordered an additional 30,000 troops, the last of whom are arriving now, with a mission to squeeze the Taliban on its home ground, build up Afghan security forces and improve chances that local people would swing behind the US-backed central government.
"The pace with which we draw down and how many we draw down is going to be conditions-based." - Gates