US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates yesterday said that both the US and Afghan governments agree the US military should remain involved in Afghanistan after the planned 2014 end of combat operations to help train and advise Afghan forces.
“Obviously it would be a small fraction of the presence that we have today, but I think we’re willing to do that,” Gates told a group of US troops at Bagram air field, which is headquarters for US and NATO forces in eastern Afghanistan. “My sense is, they [Afghan officials] are interested in having us do that.”
A soldier asked Gates about a long-term military presence and Gates said that Washington and Kabul have recently begun negotiating a security partnership. He mentioned no details. He was to meet later in the day with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Gates is at the start of a two-day visit with US troops, allied commanders and Afghan leaders to gauge war progress as the administration of US President Barack Obama moves toward crucial decisions on reducing troop levels.
Gates planned to travel to the eastern and southern parts of Afghanistan, the areas most fiercely contested by the Taliban.
US Department of Defense spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters flying with the Pentagon boss from Washington that Gates wants to get a first-hand feel for changes on the ground since he last was in Afghanistan in December.
The US is committed to beginning a troop withdrawal in July. However, the size and scope of the pullback will depend on the degree of progress toward handing off full control to the Afghan government.
Morrell said Gates expects to hear from troops and commanders that US and NATO strategy is making important progress against the relentless Taliban, who are thought to be gearing up for a spring offensive.
US commanders have been saying for weeks that the Taliban are suffering big losses in territory and personnel, while being denied the funding and infiltration routes they have relied on in the past to ramp up guerrilla operations each spring.
Marine Major General Richard Mills, top commander in Helmand Province, told reporters last week that a Taliban counteroffensive was anticipated.
Mills said he expected the Taliban to try “to regain very, very valuable territory ... lost over the past six to eight months.”
He said US and allied forces were intercepting “as many of the foreign fighters as we can” who come from Pakistan to attack US and Afghan troops.
Gates sees the spring as a potentially decisive period for Obama’s war strategy.
This visit is Gates’ 13th trip to Afghanistan and probably one of his last as secretary of defense. He has said he will retire this year, but has not given a date.
After Afghanistan, Gates planned to fly to the Stuttgart, Germany, headquarters of US Africa Command, to attend a ceremony tomorrow marking the arrival of a new commander, Army General Carter Ham.
Gates will attend a NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.
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