Afghan Withdrawal Date Would Be ‘Strategic Mistake’

Gates: Setting Afghan Withdrawal Date Would Be ‘Strategic Mistake’ – Jon Hilsenrath and Yochi J. Dreazen, Wall Street Journal.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates pushed back against calls by Congress for the administration to set a timeline for withdrawing US forces from Afghanistan, as unease about the White House’s handling of the war grows on Capitol Hill and among the public. In two television interviews, Mr. Gates argued that the Afghan war was vital to US national security. Laying out a timeline for removing American troops from Afghanistan would be “a strategic mistake” that could embolden al Qaeda and the Taliban, he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Mr. Gates waded into the political debate over Afghanistan at a pivotal moment in the eight-year-old war. The Obama administration is conducting a broad review of its strategy for the conflict as it weighs a request from the top American commander in Kabul, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, for up to 40,000 US reinforcements. About 65,000 American troops are now in Afghanistan. Gen. McChrystal completed the formal request several weeks ago, but delayed submitting it to the Pentagon at the request of Mr. Gates and other senior Defense Department leadership. The commander was expected to send the classified report to Mr. Gates over the weekend…

More at The Wall Street Journal.