White House says troops pullout still set for 2011
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration reaffirmed yesterday that it will begin pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan next summer, despite reservations among top generals that absolute deadlines are a mistake.
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: Gen. David Petraeus, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. 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 U.S. leverage with Afghan leaders.
Gates pledged yesterday that some troops would begin to leave in 13 months, but he was more cautious. "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 defense leaders accepted the announcement of a date to begin leaving as a condition of Obama's expansion of the war.
As Gates acknowledged, it is taking longer than he hoped to gain an enduring edge over the Taliban in Helmand and Kandahar provinces.
