WORLD> America
|
WORLD> America
|
|
Gates: Mistake to set Afghan withdrawal timelines
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-28 11:57
Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, said he hopes Obama will decide to commit the necessary troops. "I think you will see signs of success in a year to 18 months, if we implement the strategy right away," McCain said on ABC's "This Week." Obama sent 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan earlier this year.
Gates rejected suggestions of a split over troop levels between the Pentagon's uniformed leadership on one side and Gates and Obama on the other. "Having the wrong strategy would put even more soldiers at risk," he told ABC. "So I think it's important to get the strategy right and then we can make the resources decision." He said the strategy review would be "a matter of weeks," but he said he would not submit McChrystal's request for troops to the president "until I think -- or the president thinks -- it's appropriate to bring that into the discussion of the national security principles." In veiled criticism of the Bush administration, which he also served as defense secretary, Gates said the United States was too preoccupied with Iraq to have a comprehensive strategy for Afghanistan. "The strategy that the president put forward in late March is the first real strategy we have had for Afghanistan since the early 1980s," he said.
|
