Reporting from Forward Operating Base Shank,—
Over and over again, soldiers and Marines on the punishing front lines across Afghanistan had the same question for Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates: Does Osama bin Laden's death mean the U.S. can finally wind down a nearly decade-long war?
Not yet, Gates replied.
The persistent question also is being asked increasingly in Washington, as debate intensifies over when and how to start bringing home the 100,000 U.S. troops deployed in a conflict that is increasingly unpopular in America.
Enlisted men and women in grueling war zones typically ask visiting brass about equipment and benefits, not strategy or policy. But Gates fielded inquiries about the future of America's painful involvement in Afghanistan at four of his five stops in the south and east at far-flung Army fire bases and a dusty Marine camp on Sunday and Monday. The questions were polite, respectful and insistent.
"Sir, since the death of Osama bin Laden, has the military strategy changed at all?" a young female soldier in the 101st Airborne Division's 4th Brigade asked Gates after he thanked several hundred soldiers at their headquarters in rugged southeast Paktika province, near the border with Pakistan.
Older veterans, especially those serving their second or third combat tours, also wonder how long they must stay now, after U.S. Navy SEALs killed the founder of Al Qaeda on May 2, said Sgt. Theodore Martell, an Army medic, at this remote helicopter base in rural Lowgar province.
On a three-day visit to Afghanistan, Gates appeared to lay out his thinking on the military drawdown ahead of White House deliberations, in an effort to preempt those who favor steep troop cuts. The discussions are expected to start next week after he returns to Washington. For Gates, making his 12th and final visit as Defense secretary to thank troops before he retires this month, the answer was simple.
"We've made a lot of headway but we have a ways to go," he told soldiers with the 1st Infantry Division stationed at Combat Outpost Andar, a heavily fortified base in eastern Afghanistan's battle-scarred Ghazni province.
Read More
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-gates-20110607,0,2534142.story
Over and over again, soldiers and Marines on the punishing front lines across Afghanistan had the same question for Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates: Does Osama bin Laden's death mean the U.S. can finally wind down a nearly decade-long war?
Not yet, Gates replied.
The persistent question also is being asked increasingly in Washington, as debate intensifies over when and how to start bringing home the 100,000 U.S. troops deployed in a conflict that is increasingly unpopular in America.
Enlisted men and women in grueling war zones typically ask visiting brass about equipment and benefits, not strategy or policy. But Gates fielded inquiries about the future of America's painful involvement in Afghanistan at four of his five stops in the south and east at far-flung Army fire bases and a dusty Marine camp on Sunday and Monday. The questions were polite, respectful and insistent.
"Sir, since the death of Osama bin Laden, has the military strategy changed at all?" a young female soldier in the 101st Airborne Division's 4th Brigade asked Gates after he thanked several hundred soldiers at their headquarters in rugged southeast Paktika province, near the border with Pakistan.
Older veterans, especially those serving their second or third combat tours, also wonder how long they must stay now, after U.S. Navy SEALs killed the founder of Al Qaeda on May 2, said Sgt. Theodore Martell, an Army medic, at this remote helicopter base in rural Lowgar province.
On a three-day visit to Afghanistan, Gates appeared to lay out his thinking on the military drawdown ahead of White House deliberations, in an effort to preempt those who favor steep troop cuts. The discussions are expected to start next week after he returns to Washington. For Gates, making his 12th and final visit as Defense secretary to thank troops before he retires this month, the answer was simple.
"We've made a lot of headway but we have a ways to go," he told soldiers with the 1st Infantry Division stationed at Combat Outpost Andar, a heavily fortified base in eastern Afghanistan's battle-scarred Ghazni province.
Read More
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-gates-20110607,0,2534142.story
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