Scaparrotti Takes ISAF Joint Command Reins

From an International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Release

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 11, 2011 – Army Lt. Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti assumed command of the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command here today.

Scaparrotti succeeds Army Lt. Gen. David M. Rodriguez, who had led the command since its October 2009 inception and has been nominated to receive his fourth star and serve as commander of U.S. Army Forces Command.

Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, ISAF commander, presided over the change of command at the joint command’s Kabul International Airport headquarters. He highlighted coalition and Afghan progress under Rodriguez’s command and offered words of advice to Scaparrotti.

“‘General Rod’ is, in many respects, the operational architect of the campaign plan that has guided the progress of the past year,” Petraeus said. “After overseeing the building of the IJC headquarters, he has spent as much time in the field as in his office overseeing, together with various Afghan partners, the execution of the operational campaign plan he helped design. General Rod understands the lives of the Afghan people, and he has made it his personal mission to help serve and protect them.”

Before he was named to be IJC’s first commander, Rodriguez was the military assistant to then-Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. From January 2007 to April 2008, he commanded ISAF’s Regional Command East.

“To my Afghan partners: you are the backbone of the progress we have made here in Afghanistan,” Rodriguez said. “The people of Afghanistan continue to grow confidence in the Afghan national security forces, and every day, as leaders, you make tough decisions in the best interest of the people of Afghanistan.”

Rodriguez then offered high praise for his successor.

“Lieutenant General Scaparrotti is a superb leader and a proven counterinsurgent,” he said. “He has firsthand knowledge of Afghanistan’s complexities, having led the fight in Regional Command East. There is no better man to lead the operational fight.”

Scaparrotti comes to Afghanistan from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., where he served as the commander of the U.S. Army’s 1st Corps. The general has served in Iraq, and this is his second tour in Afghanistan.

“I’m humbled to be the new IJC commander and honored to be a part of the team with our Afghan counterparts,” he said. “IJC is where the future will be shaped through our partnered approach to fighting terrorism in Afghanistan. The work we do will have an impact for years to come.”

Gates Thanks Troops, Bids Farewell

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 23, 2011 – It’s 110 degrees in the shade, and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is answering questions from about 200 soldiers at a bleak U.S. installation near Kandahar, Afghanistan, in mid-June.

At the end of the session, he tells them he has one more thing to say: “I’ve come out here to thank you for the last time for your service and for your sacrifice. More than anybody except the president, I’m responsible for you being here. I’m the person that signed the deployment papers that got you here. And that weighs on me every day.”

It’s tough for the secretary to get through this statement. He steps away from the microphone, and there are tears in his eyes. The soldiers in the audience -- from the 4th Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade -- are moved, as well. Gates receives prolonged applause. As he hands out commemorative coins to the troops, they thank him for his service and all he has done for them.

“I’ve told friends that I would be more than happy if the only legacy I took away from this job is those kids out there in the field knew they had someone who was looking after them, all the time,” Gates said in a recent interview with American Forces Press Service during his last trip to visit deployed troops.

Gates will retire as defense secretary June 30. The U.S. Senate has confirmed CIA Director Leon E. Panetta to take his place.

It has been a sacred trust for the secretary to ensure the troops fighting the nation’s wars have what they need to succeed.

“If I had the knowledge that those [privates first class] and lance corporals, petty officers and airmen knew, that way up there in the chain of command there was somebody watching their back all the time, trying to figure out what they needed, that was most important to me,” he said.

When Gates became defense secretary at the end of 2006, Iraq was gripped by a growing insurgency, and U.S. casualties were mounting. The Army and Marine Corps were being stretched almost to the point of breaking to maintain the level of forces in Iraq and, to a lesser degree, in Afghanistan.

Something had to be done -- quickly. The secretary said he had to make four decisions very soon after taking office that still have ramifications.

“The first was the decision, which I actually discussed in my interview with President [George W.] Bush, to increase the Army by 65,000 and the Marine Corps by 27,000 to bring relief,” Gates said. The Army and Marine Corps, he added, simply weren’t big enough at that time to handle all the missions assigned to them.

The second decision was part and parcel of the Iraq surge, and that was extending all Army deployments in U.S. Central Command to 15 months.

“That was a really difficult decision and the [Joint Chiefs of Staff] chairman, [Marine Corps Gen.] Pete Pace, the vice chairman, [Navy Adm.] Ed Giambastiani, the Army chief of staff, everybody was telling me that I had to do this to provide some stability for the troops,” he said.

Gates was convinced that the only way he could give the troops a year at home, given the surge, was to extend the deployed tour to 15 months. “If we didn’t do that,” he explained, “we would be down to six or seven months at home and still have a year to 15-month tours.”

Gates knew this decision would be hard on the troops and their families, and even today, he thinks officials underestimated how painful and difficult that was for everybody.

“That decision is a burden that I’ve never put down,” he acknowledged.

The secretary’s next decision was to “regularize” the use of the National Guard and to try to get it to the point where they were being deployed as units.

“I particularly personalized it with the [explosive ordnance disposal] guys,” the secretary said. “You know, if I’m in that kind of a business, I’d sure as hell like to know the guy next to me, and have trained with him and have confidence and trust in him, instead of some guy from a different state I just met two weeks before we deployed.”

Gates’ final decision at that time involved the cessation of the so-called stop -loss policy which involuntarily extended service members’ time in the military, the secretary recalled.

“I said, ‘We have to get rid of stop-loss,’ and I kind of tied it to the increase in the end strength of the Army,” which had almost 25,000 soldiers stop-lossed, he said.

“I felt that stop-loss was a break in the contract, a breach of trust,” Gates said. “As far as I’m concerned, once we announce a decision, it’s a commitment to the troops. Then, for bureaucratic reasons, someone will come back later and try to make exceptions -- extending this or doing that. That’s breaking our word to the troops. No wonder none of them trust any one of us up the chain of command, because we can’t be counted on to keep our word once we’ve given it to them.

“So, I have felt very, very strongly about that the whole time I’ve been in this job,” he added. “Once we’ve made a commitment to these men and women, we have a huge obligation to keep.”

Gates Overcomes Obstacles in Iraq, Afghanistan

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 23, 2011 – The whole time Robert M. Gates has served as defense secretary, the nation has been at war on two fronts.

When Gates came on board in December 2006, his focus initially was on Iraq, where sectarian violence threatened to rip the country apart. He then shifted his attention to Afghanistan, where the Taliban regained the initiative while the United States was preoccupied with Iraq.

Gates was the man President George W. Bush tapped to retrieve the situation in Iraq. The secretary was familiar with the situation on the ground. As a member of the Iraq Study Group, he had traveled in the country and spoke with U.S. and Iraqi leaders. He had met with the troops doing the heavy lifting and taking the casualties in Baghdad, Tikrit and Anbar province.

The day after Gates took office, he boarded an aircraft for Baghdad and consulted with U.S. and Iraqi leaders. It was the first of 13 visits to Iraq as defense secretary. “I had three priorities when I arrived: … Iraq, Iraq and Iraq,” the secretary said during a recent interview with American Forces Press Service.

As the surge troops arrived in Iraq, violent incidents rose to 500 per week, and American casualties climbed along with them.

The secretary had to convince Congress to stay the course and that it was essential to American security that people not perceive the United States had lost in Iraq. In one instance, he cancelled a trip to Latin America to be available to talk to U.S. senators who were wavering in their support for Iraq.

Despite initial doubt from some, the surge worked. At its height, there were more than 166,000 American service members in Iraq. By the summer of 2007, leading indicators in Iraq showed progress: the number of “no-go” neighborhoods was declining and violence was going down. The “Anbar Awakening” formed the Sons of Iraq security force and gave the Iraqi government breathing room to establish control and provide much needed governance and economic growth.

Now that Iraq is relatively peaceful and fewer than 50,000 American troops remain in the country as trainers for Iraqi security forces, it is easy to forget how dangerous the situation was.

With American service members bearing the brunt of the fighting, Gates dedicated himself to getting the troops in place and providing the resources they needed to be successful. Improvised explosive devices cut through even up-armored Humvees, causing terrible casualties. Gates made it a priority to get mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles to the front.

During one visit to Anbar province, U.S. Marines there showed Gates an MRAP that had survived 20 attacks – none of which injured anyone inside. He returned to the United States determined to break through the bureaucratic inertia that had stymied procurement of the life-saving vehicles.

The surge allowed the Iraqi security forces to learn their trades and become effective. American and coalition trainers worked with the Iraqi army and police to hone their fighting and peacekeeping skills.

And it was successful. The Iraqi army that pacified Basra was a well-led and confident force operating with U.S. air and logistics support.

Iraq is on its way to being a stable democracy in an area in need of stability. But some wonder if it can stay that way without American help after Dec. 31 when U.S. forces are scheduled to leave.

The outcome in Iraq remains a cliffhanger, Gates said, noting that with the exception of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, Iraqis in influential positions know the country will still need some U.S. help.

“All the evidence we have, all the political leaders in Iraq -- with the exception of Sadr -- want us to stay for training and to have a presence,” Gates said, “and we’re prepared to do that.” The secretary added that he believes it will happen.

“It’ll be ugly, it’ll be at the last minute, and it’ll create all kinds of hassles for us logistically, but I think they see it as very much in their interest, and so do we,” he said. “It’s just a matter now of getting the ball across the goal line, and I think the conversations are about to begin, and most of the leaders are more forthright with us than they were in the past.

Even as conditions improved in Iraq, they were deteriorating in Afghanistan. American troops and their Afghan allies drove the Taliban from power in 2001. Many Taliban and their al-Qaida allies sought haven in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan.

There were few American and coalition forces in Afghanistan and the effort to train the Afghan national security forces lagged. The Afghan army was making progress, but training police was a problem.

In 2008, Gates and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called Afghanistan “an economy of force” mission – meaning there were enough troops to maintain the presence, but not enough to be effective.

The Taliban took advantage of this and began infiltrating back into their strongholds in the southern part of the country. Kandahar City and Helmand province were particular strongholds. In January 2009, when President Barack Obama took office, there were 35,000 U.S. service members in Afghanistan.

Gates stressed that the United States could not abandon Afghanistan as it did following the Soviet withdrawal in 1989. The lack of U.S. involvement led to the rise of the Taliban and gave al-Qaida a place to plan their attack on America on 9-11.

Obama sent more troops and materials to Afghanistan, and worked with national security leaders to devise a strategy and assess the requirements for implementing it.

In December 2009, Obama announced the strategy during a speech at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. He would send a surge of forces into the country – 33,000 Americans and 10,000 coalition partners, and increase trainers for Afghan soldiers and police.

The additional troops began moving into Afghanistan in January 2010 and the last of the surge brigades –the 101st Airborne Division’s 4th Brigade – arrived in August.

The increase in the number of U.S. soldiers and U.S. Marines was felt almost immediately. The Marines took the fight to the Taliban in their strongholds in the Helmand River Valley. Marja, Lashkar Gah and Sangin were cities where the Taliban enforced their will and the Marines took them on and drove them out.

In Kandahar province, the Arghandab district and areas south and west of Kandahar city were wrested from Taliban control.

And that progress has continued. In July 2010, Gates took a stroll through the main street of Now Zad – a place he could not have walked through a few months earlier. The much improved security has brought out Afghan entrepreneurs and the main street is lined with shops and bustling with people.

Afghan troops are taking over security responsibility from the coalition in many of these areas. The provincial and district governments are coming together and putting in place programs to encourage development.

The coalition and their Afghan allies have taken the momentum back and this fighting season will be crucial to holding their gains, Gates said. He added that he believes the Taliban must understand they have been decisively beaten before they seriously attempt reconciliation with the government.

As the secretary leaves office, there are 100,000 American service members serving in Afghanistan. That number will go down as Afghan forces take on security responsibility.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is the second of a four-part series.)

Flournoy: Afghanistan Drawdown Matches Strategy

By Lisa Daniel

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 23, 2011 – President Barack Obama’s decision to withdraw the 33,000 U.S. surge forces from Afghanistan by the end of next summer is consistent with the policy he established in 2009, the Pentagon’s top policy official said today.

Obama was “true to his word” last night when he announced that 10,000 U.S. service members would leave Afghanistan by the end of this year and the remaining 23,000 from the surge would leave by the end of summer in 2012, Michèle Flournoy, undersecretary of defense for policy, told the House Armed Services Committee.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates “believes that this decision provides our commanders with the right mix of flexibility, resources and time to continue building on our progress on the ground,” she said.

Even after the 33,000 service members redeploy, about 68,000 U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan, Flournoy said. “That’s more than twice the number as when President Obama took office,” she said. “Clearly, this is not a ‘rush to the exits’ that will jeopardize our security gains.”

The growth and increasing capabilities of Afghan security forces is allowing for the U.S. drawdown, Flournoy said. Afghanistan is on target to field an additional 55,400 of its security forces by the end of August 2012, she said, allowing for more Afghan and coalition forces in the fight than there are today.

“Our strategy in Afghanistan is working as it was designed,” Flournoy said. “The momentum has shifted to coalition and Afghan forces, and together we have degraded the Taliban’s capability and achieved significant security gains.”

Those gains have been achieved mostly in the southern part of Afghanistan, Flournoy said, and they , “are enabling key political initiatives to make progress.

“We have begun a transition process that will, ultimately, put Afghans in the lead for security nationwide by 2014,” she said.

Flournoy, speaking alongside Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said efforts to reintegrate insurgent fighters into Afghan society are beginning to gain traction and U.S. officials are discussing a long-term, strategic partnership with the Afghan government “to signal our enduring commitment to the Afghan people for regional peace and stability.”

The United States and its 47 partner nations in Afghanistan are standing by the commitment they made at the Lisbon Summit in November to “ensure we leave behind an Afghanistan that no longer serves as a base for terrorist attacks against the United States and its allies,” Flournoy said.

In the months ahead, she said, “We will be confronted by an enemy that will try to regain the momentum and territory that it has lost” to U.S., coalition and Afghan forces.

However, Flournoy added, that enemy is facing an Afghan population that is increasingly benefitting from security and self-governance. The greatest progress, so far, she said, is “from the bottom up,” with local government showing the most success.

Looking two to three years out, Flournoy said, the Taliban are controlling less territory and receiving less support from residents.

“Any way you slice it, things are getting worse for them, not better,” she said.

Obama Announces Troop Reductions, Way Forward in Afghanistan

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 22, 2011 – Thanks to the tremendous progress U.S., coalition and Afghan troops have made, the United States will draw down the number of troops in Afghanistan by 10,000 this year and 33,000 by the end of summer 2012, President Barack Obama said here tonight.

“The tide of war is receding,” the president said during an address to the nation from the White House. “Fewer of our sons and daughters are serving in harm’s way.”

In a statement released by the Pentagon following the presiden'ts announcement, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said the president’s decision capitalizes on the security successes.

“Over the past 18 months our troops have made tremendous progress degrading the capability of the Taliban while enhancing the Afghan security forces,” Gates said. “It is critical that we continue to aggressively prosecute that strategy. I support the President’s decision because it provides our commanders with enough resources, time and, perhaps most importantly, flexibility to bring the surge to a successful conclusion.”

When completed in September 2012, the drawdown will remove the last of the plus-up of forces in Afghanistan that Obama ordered in December 2009 during a speech at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.

In that same speech, the president announced the new Afghan strategy, which  was to focus on al-Qaida, reverse the Taliban’s momentum and to train Afghan security forces. He also announced that the drawdown would begin in July 2011.

Obama said his announcement tonight is proof that the strategy is working. “Thanks to our men and women in uniform, our civilian personnel, and our many coalition partners, we are meeting our goals,” he said. When the first stage of the drawdown is complete in September 2012, the surge will be over.

U.S. troops will continue to drawdown as Afghan security forces take the lead for protecting their own country. As this continues, the U.S. mission will switch from combat to support.

“By 2014, this process of transition will be complete, and the Afghan people will be responsible for their own security,” Obama said.

The United States ended its combat role in Iraq last year and there are now about 45,000 U.S. troops in Iraq providing training and support to Iraqi security forces. The reduction of 33,000 troops by the end of summer 2012 will mean about 65,000 Americans in Afghanistan.

“Even as there will be dark days ahead in Afghanistan, the light of a secure peace can be seen in the distance,” Obama said. “These long wars will come to a responsible end.”

Obama said the past 10 years have been difficult for America. “We have learned anew the profound cost of war -- a cost that has been paid by the nearly 4,500 Americans who have given their lives in Iraq, and the over 1,500 who have done so in Afghanistan – men and women who will not live to enjoy the freedom that they defended,” he said. “Thousands more have been wounded. Some have lost limbs on the field of battle, and others still battle the demons that have followed them home.”

The president pledged that America will honor the sacrifices of so many and keep the sacred trust to provide the families of the fallen, those wounded and the veterans of the conflict “the care, and benefits, and opportunity that you deserve.”

In a background briefing before the speech, senior administration officials said the president’s decision had the full support of the national security team. Army Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, presented the president with a range of options and the risks associated with each.

“I think there’s a broad understanding among the national security team that there’s an imperative to both consolidate the gains that have been made and continue our efforts to train Afghan security forces and partner with them in going after the Taliban, while also being very serious about the process of transition and the drawdown of our forces,” the official said.

The drawdown begins from a position of strength, Obama said. Al-Qaida and its Taliban allies are under tremendous pressure. Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan and more than half of al-Qaida’s leadership has been killed or captured.

“In Afghanistan, we’ve inflicted serious losses on the Taliban and taken a number of its strongholds,” the president said. “Along with our surge, our allies also increased their commitments, which helped stabilize more of the country. Afghan security forces have grown by over 100,000 troops, and in some provinces and municipalities we have already begun to transition responsibility for security to the Afghan people.”

Everything is not rosy, the president said, and the United States remains committed to preserving the gains made and expanding on them. “We do know that peace cannot come to a land that has known so much war without a political settlement,” he said. “So as we strengthen the Afghan government and security forces, America will join initiatives that reconcile the Afghan people, including the Taliban.” Any reconciliation will be done with Afghans in the lead.

“The goal that we seek is achievable, and can be expressed simply: no safe-haven from which al-Qaida or its affiliates can launch attacks against our homeland, or our allies,” the president said.

“We will not try to make Afghanistan a perfect place. We will not police its streets or patrol its mountains indefinitely. That is the responsibility of the Afghan government, which must step up its ability to protect its people; and move from an economy shaped by war to one that can sustain a lasting peace," Obama said. "What we can do, and will do, is build a partnership with the Afghan people that endures – one that ensures that we will be able to continue targeting terrorists and supporting a sovereign Afghan government.”

The president also addressed the terrorist threat that resides in Pakistan. “No country is more endangered by the presence of violent extremists, which is why we will continue to press Pakistan to expand its participation in securing a more peaceful future for this war-torn region,” he said.

The United States will continue to work with Pakistani leaders to go after terrorists. “We will insist that it keep its commitments,” he said. “For there should be no doubt that so long as I am president, the United States will never tolerate a safe-haven for those who aim to kill us: they cannot elude us, nor escape the justice they deserve.”

The president stressed that America’s strength overseas is anchored by prosperity and opportunity at home. “Over the last decade, we have spent a trillion dollars on war, at a time of rising debt and hard economic times,” he said. “Now, we must invest in America’s greatest resource – our people. We must unleash innovation that creates new jobs and industry, while living within our means.”

He said the nation needs to rebuild its infrastructure and find new and clean sources of energy. “Most of all, after a decade of passionate debate, we must recapture the common purpose that we shared at the beginning of this time of war,” he said. “For our nation draws strength from our differences, and when our union is strong no hill is too steep and no horizon is beyond our reach.

“America, it is time to focus on nation building here at home,” he said.

Gates Says Afghanistan Withdrawal Capitalizes on Success

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 22, 2011 – U.S. troops have made tremendous progress in degrading the capability of the Taliban while enhancing Afghan security forces, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said following the president's announcement tonight regarding withdrawal of U.S. forces.

Below is the secretary's full statement:

"Over the past 18 months our troops have made tremendous progress degrading the capability of the Taliban while enhancing the Afghan security forces. It is critical that we continue to aggressively prosecute that strategy. I support the President’s decision because it provides our commanders with enough resources, time and, perhaps most importantly, flexibility to bring the surge to a successful conclusion."

Gates Says Libya Strategy ‘Absolutely Right’

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 19, 2011 – The U.S. strategy toward Libya is “absolutely right,” Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said on "Fox News Sunday" this morning.

The secretary, who will retire June 30, also discussed Afghanistan, the fiscal future of the department and what he will miss about the job during one of his last interviews as secretary.

The United States and its allies began the operation to protect Libyans from the depredations of the Gadhafi regime, and then turned leadership of the effort over to NATO. “When this operation started … we had 50,000 troops in Iraq. We had 100,000 troops in Afghanistan. We had 24,000 people engaged in Japanese earthquake relief. We have a number of commitments around the world,” Gates said.

“The arrangement and the understanding the president had with our key allies from the very beginning was the U.S. would come in heavy at beginning, establish a no-fly zone and then hand off the operation to our allies and that we would recede into a support role,” he said. “That was his decision going in and he stuck to it.”

The operation is protecting the Libyan people and the regime is getting weaker each day.

The secretary believes President Obama has complied with the War Powers Act. But the president would also welcome the Congress passing a resolution of support.

From the U.S. standpoint American service members are “involved in a limited kinetic operation. If I’m in Qaddafi’s palace, I suspect I'd think I’m at war,” he said.

Gates also discussed the strategy in Afghanistan. Once President Obama decided on a strategy in December 2009, he has stuck with it. As part of that strategy, U.S. troops will be drawn down gradually, turning over security responsibility to Afghan forces.

“It’s always been envisioned that with success on the ground, that the balance between combination of counterinsurgency and counterterrorism, the way it would shift more to counterterrorism over time,” Gates said. “We have had a lot of success over the last 15 months in Afghanistan. The conditions on the ground are far better than they were a year ago.”

This fighting season, the coalition and its Afghan allies have not only held everything taken from the Taliban last year, they have been able to expand security and further disrupt the infiltrations coming in from Pakistan, Gates said.

Turning to the budget, the secretary said he is worried about the fiscal future of the department. He is afraid that many whose primary concern is the deficit will see the department as a cash cow.

“The base defense budget is not part of the deficit problem, he said. “Our percentage of the base budget, not counting the cost of wars, the defense budget is about 3.5 percent of (gross domestic product). That’s basically the lowest that's been, except for a brief period in the ‘90s, since before World War II.”

The department will economize and the cost of the wars will fall dramatically in the next few years. “I think that it’s a mistake -- particularly to couch the question in terms of the cost of war, because my question is, what’s the cost of failure?” he said. “What was cost of 9/11 because we left Afghanistan in 1989? How much money have we spent since 9/11 trying to deal with that problem?”

The United States is on the right road with the combat role in Afghanistan scheduled to end in 2014. “So, this isn’t an open-ended conflict,” he said. “I just ask people to consider the consequences of failure.”

Gates has served 45 years in public service. He offered a few insights that experience has gained hi, “When we have been successful in national security and foreign affairs, it has been because there has been bipartisan support,” he said.

At its heart, success comes when the executive and legislative branches have agreed on the basic tenets of the national security strategy. “That’s what happened through nine presidencies and the Cold War that led to our success, because no major international problem can be solved on one president’s watch,” he said. “And so, unless it has bipartisan support, unless it can be extended over a period of time, the risks of failure is high.”

Gates said the only thing he will miss about being secretary is the chance to interact with the troops. “I just spent three days with them in Afghanistan a week-and-a-half ago, and getting on that plane was very hard,” he said.

He felt he was leaving them behind while they were still in the fight. “They’re so dedicated and so confident and they’re so capable,” he said. “They’re just (such) extraordinary people.”

Gates Discusses Way Forward in Afghanistan

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 19, 2011 – The Taliban must know they are beaten before they reconcile in any meaningful way, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said on CNN’s "State of the Union" program today.

Gates told Candy Crowley that U.S. and coalition diplomats have been carrying out preliminary negotiations with the Taliban for a couple of weeks.

“My own view is that real reconciliation talks are not likely to make any substantive headway until at least this winter,” Gates said. “I think the Taliban have to feel themselves under military pressure and begin to believe they can’t win, before they are willing to have a serious conversation.”

American, Afghan and coalition troops have made significant gains over the past 18 months, the secretary said. Coalition and Afghan troops have booted the Taliban from Kandahar and Helmand provinces – traditionally the stronghold of the group.

The Taliban will have to meet the conditions for reconciliation including totally disavowing al-Qaida and supporting the Afghan constitution, the secretary said.

The Afghan troop draw down will be announced shortly, but everything will be conditions-based and even with a draw down there will be a significant number of American troops remaining in country, he said. President Obama has added 65,000 troops to Afghanistan since he took office.

The pace and the scope would be based on the conditions on the ground. “We will essentially present the president with options and with the different levels of risk associated with those options and he will decide,” he said.

The secretary sees the conflict in Afghanistan ending the same way it has in Iraq – “with us playing a key role for some period of time, building up the local security forces, … degrading the capability of the Taliban to the point where the Afghan forces can take care of them, and then transitioning the responsibility to the Afghans,” he said.

The transition has already begun with a quarter of the Afghan people, including the capital region Kabul, live under Afghan security leadership. “What you will see between now and the end of 2014 is the transition of the rest of the country over a period of time,” he said. “As the Afghan forces get better, we can pull back into the training and partnering role and more into counterterrorism.”

The American people are war weary, but they must understand that the commitment has been limited over the years, the secretary said. “The U.S. had a very limited commitment in Afghanistan until well into 2008,” he said. “We didn’t have the resources in place until summer 2010. I understand that everybody is war weary.

“But the reality is we won the first Afghan War in 2001-2002,” he continued. “We were diverted by Iraq and we virtually ignored Afghanistan for a number of years. I understand we have been at war for 10 years, but we have not been at full-scale war in Afghanistan except since last summer.

U.S., Pakistan Must Keep Communications Lines Open

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 16, 2011 – The U.S.-Pakistan relationship is complicated, but the two countries must keep the lines of communication open, said Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates during his last news conference today.

Gates and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the mutual dependence is too strong for either country to end relations with the other.

“It is complicated, but as … I've said often before, we need each other, and we need each other more than just in the context of Afghanistan,” Gates said. “Pakistan is an important player in terms of regional stability and in terms of Central Asia. And so my view is that this is a relationship where we just need to keep working at it.”

Mullen said the relationship is still critical, and he will continue to work with Pakistani Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ashfaq Kayani.

“What the Pakistani military's going through right now, obviously is considerable introspection based on recent events,” Mullen said. “That makes a lot of sense to me. They've got some questions. I know General Kayani well enough to know (that) what he cares about the most is not himself: What he cares about the most is his institution.”

Pakistan is a partner against terrorists, Gates and Mullen said. They pointed out that Pakistan has 140,000 troops along its border with Afghanistan. The Pakistani military has cleaned South Waziristan and the Swat Valley of the Taliban.

The United States ships a majority of its supplies to Afghanistan across Pakistan, and keeping those lines of communication open is also literally and figuratively important.

Finally, both men pointed out that Pakistan is a nuclear country. Maintaining good relations with Pakistan could help ensure nuclear know-how or even weapons don’t fall into the hands of terrorists.

Gates responded to a question about Ayman Zawahiri’s “promotion” to lead al-Qaida. “I’m not sure it’s a position anybody should aspire to, under the circumstances,” he said. “I think he will face some challenges. Bin Laden has been the leader of al-Qaida, essentially since its inception. In that particular context, he had a peculiar charisma that I think Zawahiri does not have. I think he was much more operationally engaged than we have the sense Zawahiri has been. I’ve read that there is some suspicion within al-Qaida of Zawahiri because he’s Egyptian.”

The al-Qaida announcement, though, highlights the fact that the organization is not going away, its leader still hate America and it remains committed to terror, the secretary said.

Americans are worried about the war in Afghanistan. He said that that with the exception of the first couple of years of World War II, “there has never been a popular war in the United States in our whole history. They’ve all been controversial.”

He said the war weariness rests heavily on all. “The key is how do we complete our mission, as we have largely done in Iraq, in a way that protects American national security interests and the American people and contributes to stability?” Gates said. “I think most people would say we've been largely successful in that respect in Iraq. I think we’re on a path to do that in Afghanistan.”

The cost of the wars are huge, but it is declining. “The costs of these wars will go down between FY '11 and FY '12 by $40 billion, from $160 (billion dollars) to less than $120 billion,” Gates said. “There’s every reason to believe that between FY '12 and FY '13 there would be another significant reduction. And, of course, with the Lisbon agreement, the size of our forces left in Afghanistan in December of 2014 would be a small fraction of what they are today.”

Report: U.S. Aid is Critical to the Mission in Libya

By Donna Miles

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 16, 2011 – American support is critical to the NATO-led mission in Libya and is having no significant operational impact on the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, Defense and State department officials said in a new report to Congress.

Issued yesterday, the report details U.S. actions to date in support of a coalition of NATO and Arab allies enforcing U.N. Security Council resolutions to protect the Libyan people.

The report, as described in a cover letter cosigned by Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs Elizabeth L. King and Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs Joseph E. Macmanus, outlines the U.S. supporting role in Operation Unified Protector and the unique capabilities the U.S. military is contributing.

These include electronic warfare assistance; aerial refueling; strategic lift capability; personnel recovery and search and rescue; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support; a standby alert strike package and manpower support at three NATO headquarters.

As of June 3, the Defense Department’s cost for military operations and humanitarian assistance efforts in Libya was $715.9 million, the report said.

Support for the Libya mission is having no adverse impact on Operation New Dawn in Iraq and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, the report said.

“In some cases, forces were delayed in arriving in Iraq and Afghanistan [due to the Libya mission], but the operational impact was mitigated by forces already supporting those operations,” the report noted.

All forces initially diverted from other operations to support the Libya mission now have been replaced. The one exception is a single guided missile destroyer that is expected to be replaced this month, the report said.

Since March 31, when the United States turned over full command and control responsibility of Operation Unified Protector to NATO, three-quarters of more than 10,000 sorties have been flown by non-U.S. coalition partners, the report noted. In addition, all 20 ships enforcing the arms embargo are European and Canadian, and the “overwhelming majority” of strike sorties are being flown by European allies.

U.S. strikes are limited to the suppression of enemy air defenses and occasional strikes by Predator unmanned aerial vehicles against “a specific set of targets, all within the U.N. authorization, in order to minimize collateral damage in urban areas,” the report noted.

The coalition mission is showing progress, and the situation on the ground has “steadily improved” over the past few weeks for Libyan civilians under threat from Moammar Gadhafi’s troops. His forces “were halted at the gates of Benghazi and have since been driven back from several towns and cities across the country,” the report said.

In addition, growing international opinion is calling for Gadhafi to step down as the opposition-led Traditional National Council gains credibility and legitimacy while charting a post-Gadhafi political transition.

“This growing consensus and [Gadhafi’s] control of less and less of Libya indicate that his departure is only a matter of time,” the report says.

Ending U.S. support to the Libya mission now “would seriously degrade the coalition’s ability to execute and sustain” operations to protect Libyan civilians and enforce the no-fly zone and naval arms embargo authorized by a U.N. Security Council resolution, the report noted.

“Cessation of U.S. military activities in support of [Operation Unified Protector] would also significantly increase the level of risk for the remaining allied and coalition forces conducting the operation,” the report said, likely causing some nations to withdraw from the operation.

Not having the assets and capabilities to sustain the mission through Sept. 27, as agreed to during the recent NATO defense ministerial, would have serious consequences for the alliance, the report said.

“NATO’s credibility would be damaged with significant consequences for U.S., European and global security,” the report said.

NATO Members Re-evaluate Contributions to Libya Mission

By Donna Miles

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 14, 2011 – NATO members are reviewing their contributions with an eye toward increasing their support to the ongoing mission to protect the Libyan people from Moammar Gadhafi’s forces, a NATO spokeswoman said today.

“It is clear that NATO has the resources to keep up the pressure on the Gadhafi regime,” Oana Lungescu told reporters via videoconference from Brussels. “We know it takes time. We know that following last week’s ministerial meeting, allies and partners are considering how they can best provide the necessary resources to see this mission through.”

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen is “confident the alliance will do just that,” she said.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates joined his fellow defense ministers at last week’s ministerial in Brussels to endorse the extension of NATO’s Operation Unified Protector mission by 90 days. The extension authorizes NATO to continue operations through the end of September.

Gates also prodded NATO to increase its support for the operation, telling NATO’s Security and Defense Agenda assembly the day after the ministerial the mission as it stands reflects lack of both resources and will.

“While every alliance member voted for the Libya mission, less than half have participated, and fewer than a third have been willing to participate in the strike mission,” he said. “Frankly, many of those allies sitting on the sidelines do so not because they do not want to participate, but simply because they can’t. The military capabilities simply aren’t there.”

Despite these gaps, Gates recognized that the mission has succeeded in grounding Gadhafi’s air force and degrading his regime’s ability to kill his own people. “While the operation has exposed some shortcomings caused by underfunding,” the secretary said, “it has also showed the potential of NATO, with an operation where Europeans are taking the lead with American support.”

NATO Deputy Spokesperson and Royal Air Force Wing Cmdr. Mike Bracken, military spokesman for Operation Unified Protector, reported “considerable dynamic activity across Libya” during the past few days, with frequent skirmishes in pockets of the country between pro-Gadhafi and rebel forces.

NATO is monitoring the constantly evolving situation on the ground closely as it continues its operations, Bracken said today via teleconference from the Combined Joint Task Force Headquarters in Naples, Italy.

Much of NATO’s effort is focused on Tripoli, where air strikes continue to degrade Gadhafi’s command-and-control nodes and other military targets and ultimately, his forces’ ability to coordinate attacks, Bracken reported.

“We know that Tripoli is the lynchpin for the command and control of the Gadhafi regime and his ability to issue orders to fielded forces,” he said.

NATO also is targeting ammunition storage bunkers and facilities across Libya to deny Gadhafi forces munitions and reduce the threat of attacks on the civilian population.

“NATO will continue to dismantle the regime’s ability to coordinate attacks and direct violence against the country, and reduce pro-Gadhafi forces’ freedom to maneuver,” Bracken said.

Lungescu expressed optimism at Germany’s and the United Arab Emirates’ recent decisions to recognize the anti-Gadhafi National Transitional Council established in February as “the sole legitimate representative of the Libyan people.”

She called the decision “further evidence of the increasing isolation of the Gadhafi regime and that, quite simply, this regime has no future.”