U.S. military sees Afghan war on track despite shakeup
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Thursday Afghan war strategy was on track and that the newly named commander would work to meet President Barack Obama's goal to start withdrawing troops in July 2011.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Obama's decision to name Central Command chief David Petraeus to replace disgraced General Stanley McChrystal as the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan was "the best possible outcome to an awful situation."
Gates said Petraeus, credited with the turnaround in Iraq, will have the authority to adjust war plans and military tactics once he get to Kabul, but he added that the general was committed to Obama's strategy.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he felt physically sick after reading an article earlier this week that quoted McChrystal and his top aides mocking some of Obama's closest advisers.
The Rolling Stone article portrayed McChrystal as a derring-do soldier sometimes exasperated by politicians.
Gates said the United States was not bogged down in Afghanistan but acknowledged progress was slower and harder than anticipated.
He said the Taliban should not "misinterpret these personnel changes as a slackening of this government's commitment to the mission."
"We remain committed to that mission and to the comprehensive civil-military strategy ordered by the president to achieve our goals there," Gates said.
Both Gates and Mullen said Petraeus and the military as a whole supported the timeline set by Obama to begin a gradual withdrawal of U.S. forces in July 2011, conditions permitting.
"The strategy hasn't changed and the policy hasn't changed and we are very focused on the time between now and July 2011," Mullen said earlier. But he added: "We don't know the pace and we don't know the place."
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