Gates calls for modest troop reductions

KABUL -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates appealed for patience with an unpopular war and said Saturday that only modest U.S. troop reductions would make sense this summer in a still unstable Afghanistan.

On his 12th and final visit to Afghanistan as Pentagon chief, Gates held out the possibility of a turning point in the war by year's end. But Gates, who's retiring June 30, said much depends on whether the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden creates a new opening for peace negotiations with leaders of the Taliban insurgency.

This and other aspects of the war, now in its 10th year, were on the agenda for Gates' meetings Saturday with Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. and NATO commander here, and with U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry. A decision on U.S. troop reductions is expected in the next couple of weeks.

Gates stressed the effectiveness of U.S.-led NATO military operations against the Taliban over the past year, after President Barack Obama ordered an extra 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan. Gains have been notable in the south, the heartland of the Taliban movement.

"I believe that if we can hold on to the territory that has been recaptured from the Taliban . . . and perhaps expand that security, that we will be in position toward the end of this year to perhaps have a successful opening to reconciliation" with the Taliban -- "or at least be in a position where we can say we've turned the corner here in Afghanistan," Gates said.

"Making any changes prior to that time would be premature," he added.

Together with remarks he made about Afghanistan earlier Saturday at a security conference in Singapore, Gates' statements suggest that he worries that large U.S. troop cuts this year would run the risk of undermining battlefield gains and jeopardize a NATO-endorsed plan to remove all foreign combat troops from Afghanistan by 2015. The White House is pushing for bigger reductions than are favored by the military.

Gates also is concerned that a U.S. troop withdrawal could lead other members of the coalition, known as the International Security Assistance Force, to quit or sharply reduce their participation.

"There will be no rush to the exits," he said.