Officials defend Obama's date to begin troop pullout

[jefferson_dem]

Officials defend Obama's date to begin troop pullout
8:18am EST
By David Alexander

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's July 2011 date for beginning to pull U.S. forces from Afghanistan is not a "drop-dead deadline" but a message to Kabul about the urgency of fielding an army to defend the country, senior U.S. officials said on Sunday.

"I believe that there is an important element here of balancing sending a signal of resolve, but also giving the Afghan government a sense of urgency that they need to get their young men recruited, trained and into the field," Defense Secretary Robert Gates told NBC's "Meet the Press" program.

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NOT ARBITRARY

"We will begin to thin our forces and begin to bring them home," he added. "But the pace of that -- of bringing them home and where we will bring them home from -- will depend on the circumstances on the ground. And those judgments will be made by our commanders in the field," he said.

Gates told ABC's "This Week" program the July 2011 date was not arbitrary, saying two years will have passed since the deployment of Marines, giving commanders on the ground enough time to assess whether their strategy is working.

Withdrawal of U.S. forces would not take place abruptly but over a period of time, he said.

"We will do the same thing we did in Iraq when we transition to Afghan security responsibility," he said. "We will withdraw first into tactical overwatch, and then a strategic overwatch, if you will, the cavalry over the hill in case they run into trouble."

Gates declined to say how long the United States would keep a significant military force in Afghanistan once it began to withdraw, saying "I don't want to put a deadline on it."

He noted that President Hamid Karzai said in his recent inaugural address that Afghan security forces should take over security control of important areas of the country within three years and assume total responsibility within five years.

"I think that we're in that ... neighborhood, two to three to four years," Gates said. "During that period, we will be ... turning over provinces to Afghan security forces and that will allow us to bring the number of our forces down in a steady but conditions-based circumstance."

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[Cha]

1. Thanks, I just

this and I wish them the best of luck on all their goals.