A looming US decision on troop drawdowns in Afghanistan could include a timeline for pulling out 30,000 "surge" forces deployed last year, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday. In a farewell visit to Afghanistan before stepping down as Pentagon chief, Gates indicated for the first time that President Barack Obama may be preparing to lay out a long-term plan for US troop levels over the next few years.
Obama is expected to reveal soon how many US troops will return home in July as control of security passes from foreign to Afghan troops in seven areas of the country.
The transfer marks the first phase of a handover due to conclude by 2015, by which time all foreign combat troops are supposed to have withdrawn. Speaking to US Marines at a base in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, near some of the war's worst battlefields, Gates said there were "two intermediate numbers that need to be resolved" as Obama weighs troop drawdowns.
"One is, what is the size of the reduction that will be announced in July?" he said. "But the other is, at one point do you bring home the surge (forces)?"
Obama sent an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan last year in a bid to gain the initiative in the war against Taliban-led insurgents which started in 2001, while vowing to begin pulling out forces by mid-2011. The "surge" of US reinforcements implied a "temporary" move, said Gates, before asking: "So how long should the surge last?"
"And I think that is the second bookend, if you will, in the decision that I think the president is going to need to make over the course of the next few weeks," he added. With public opposition to the war growing and patience in the US Congress wearing thin, Obama faces a difficult decision on troop numbers just as commanders say they are making headway.
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