US to end Afghan combat role in 2013

[din]

US to end Afghan combat role in 2013
Defence secretary says American forces will move to training role one year before expected withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Last Modified: 02 Feb 2012 02:30

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Panetta was "pleased" France indicated it would retain long-term training and advising role in Afghanistan [Reuters] The United States has announced plans to end its combat mission in Afghanistan in 2013 and shift to a training role, one year prior to when most US troops are expected to withdraw.

Wednesday's comments by Defence Secretary Leon Panetta was the first time the US administration had forecast American and allied troops could end their combat operations by the second half of next year.

"Hopefully by the mid-to-latter part of 2013, we'll be able to make a transition from a combat role to a train, advise and assist role," Panetta told reporters aboard his plane en route to a NATO meeting in Brussels.

"That's basically what...we did in Iraq. And it's what we're going to try to do in Afghanistan", Panetta said.

In keeping with the approach used by the administration of US President Barack Obama in Iraq, Panetta said the end of a US combat role in the Central-Asian nation is part of a gradual NATO plan adopted in Lisbon in November 2010, which calls for handing over security duties to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.

The United States had no plans to move up the 2014 deadline for the withdrawal of American and coalition forces, Panetta said.

Of stepping back from a combat role, Panetta said "everybody assumed that there would come a time, as we move towards the end of 2014, that we would be transitioning that role."

After a decade of war, Washington has vowed to withdraw combat forces battling the Taliban by the end of 2014 while leaving the door open to a follow-on force focused on training, depending on the outcome of negotiations with the Afghan government.

"We all went in here together and we'll all go out together, but we have to do it on the basis of a strong alliance and a strong commitment that was made in Lisbon," said Panetta of the United States' NATO allies, including France, before he was due to meet NATO defense ministers on Thursday.

Panetta termed 2013 as a "crucial" year for the final transfer of remaining areas to Afghan security forces and "2014 becomes a year of consolidating the transition."

It was not immediately clear how the planned shift from combat to a mainly advisory role would affect US troop levels.

With nearly 90,000 US troops now in Afghanistan, Panetta said that "no decision has been made with regards to the level of forces we'll have in 2013."

By the end of September, the number of US troops is due to drop to 68,000, following the scheduled withdrawal of a "surge force" that deployed in 2010.

The Pentagon chief sought to play down the effect of last month's surprise announcement from French President Nicolas Sarkozy to withdraw French combat forces in 2013, a year earlier than planned under the NATO strategy.

"With regards to France, I understand why they made their decision," he said.

Despite the French withdrawal plans, he said he was "pleased" that Paris had indicated it would retain a longer-term military presence with troops training and advising Afghan forces.

A senior US defense official told reporters it was possible that there was no serious gap between the French stance and NATO's timeline, depending on the precise details of what Paris planned.

"I think the discussions will reveal whether there's a serious difference or not," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

[Ghundal]

U.S. plans to halt Afghan combat role in 2013

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE8102L320120202

By David Alexander
BRUSSELS | Thu Feb 2, 2012 3:52am EST

By David Alexander

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The United States intends to end combat operations in Afghanistan before the end of 2013, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Wednesday, laying down a new marker for winding down America's longest war.

The timetable described by Panetta appeared to be the first time the United States has said it would shift into a supporting role, training and advising Afghan troops, by next year. His remarks came as allies like France appear to be looking to exit Afghanistan and President Barack Obama is eager to show voters that American involvement is ending.

"Our goal is to complete all of that transition in 2013 and then hopefully by mid- to the latter part of 2013 we'll be able to make a transition from a combat role to a training, advise-and-assist role," Panetta told reporters on his plane to Brussels for a NATO defense ministers' meeting.

Panetta's comments came days after French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is facing a difficult re-election campaign, announced he would pull French troops out of Afghanistan by the end of 2013. Four French soldiers were killed last month by a rogue Afghan soldier.

Sarkozy urged other members of the North Atlantic alliance to do the same, threatening to upend a well-settled strategy approved at a summit in Lisbon two years ago that calls for the transition to Afghan security leadership by the end of 2014.

It remained to be seen how the new U.S. timetable for ending combat operations would affect the calculations of Taliban insurgents, who have been fighting a guerilla war against NATO forces.

The United States has been trying to draw the Taliban into reconciliation talks with the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai. But a key part of its strategy has been to increase military pressure on the Taliban to persuade it to join peace talks.

In a new classified report obtained by British media, NATO said that the Taliban, backed by Pakistan, remained confident despite a decade of NATO efforts that it would retake control of Afghanistan.

NOT A NEW STRATEGY, PANETTA SAYS

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Obama's most likely White House opponent in November's election, said Panetta's announcement shows the president's Afghanistan strategy was misguided, naive and wrong.

"Why (in) the world do you go to the people that you're fighting with and tell them the day you're pulling out your troops? It makes absolutely no sense," Romney said at a campaign rally in Las Vegas. "His (Obama's) naivete is putting in jeopardy the mission of the United States of America and our commitments to freedom. He is wrong."

Panetta portrayed the new timetable for ending U.S. combat operations in mid- to late 2013 as an implementation of previous NATO strategy agreed in Lisbon.

"In the Lisbon discussions, it was always clear that there would come a point which we would make that transition and then be able to hopefully consolidate those gains in 2014," he said. "So the bottom line is: No, this isn't a new strategy. It's basically implementing what Lisbon is all about."

Panetta said he understood the reasons for France's apparent decision on its troops in Afghanistan, but hoped it would continue to work in the country through 2014.

A quicker end to U.S. combat in Afghanistan could give Obama an election-year lift, allowing him to point to a plan for ending the war.

A total of 1,890 U.S. soldiers have been killed the conflict since it was launched after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. U.S. forces number about 90,000 among the 130,000-strong NATO-led force. France has 3,600 troops in Afghanistan and Britain 9,500.

But Panetta has come under criticism from some lawmakers for moving too swiftly to extract U.S. troops. American military brass said while they ultimately agreed to Obama's plan to remove an extra 30,000 "surge" troops from the country this year, the plan entailed more risk than they were comfortable with.

Independent Senator Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security committee, said Panetta's statement "sends the wrong message at the wrong time to both our friends and our enemies in the Afghan conflict. There is absolutely no military rationale that I am aware of for suddenly accelerating the current timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan."

In a joint statement Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, both vocal opponents of a drawdown, said Panetta's comments send the wrong signal to both U.S. allies and enemies.

"The Taliban has little incentive to engage in a meaningful negotiation with the Afghan government or with us to end the conflict when they believe the United States is leaving and that they can wait us out," the senators said.

Panetta said his key message to the NATO allies as they meet on Thursday and Friday to prepare for a Chicago summit in May was that the coalition in Afghanistan needed to unite behind the goals agreed on in Lisbon.

"We're on the right track. We've made important gains. We just have to stick with this until ... we all can by the end of 2014 be able to end this mission based on the success ... that gives Afghanistan the security it needs for the future," he said.

Despite the move by France, the other allies had supported the Lisbon process, Panetta said.

A senior U.S. defense official said the American delegation was keen to hear from French allies about Sarkozy's thinking.

"What's been said doesn't necessarily imply a change in the commitment to the Lisbon timetable in terms of when the final phase of the transition process will be concluded," the official said.

"So we want to get a better sense of what the French actually have in mind, what kind of role they envisage in 2013 and in 2014," he said. "We may well be able to work with this. It may not be a fundamental difference."

The official noted that many policy officials in Paris had been caught off guard by Sarkozy's announcement and it had been difficult to get "exactly to what the French bottom line is."

"So far, we're not concerned about any cracks in the unity of the coalition," the official said. "I think despite predictions of rushing for the exits at different stages of this process, the coalition has held pretty firm together."

(Editing by Peter Cooney and Christopher Wilson)