US to retain presence in Afghanistan: Pentagon

The Pentagon’s top civilian and military officials on Sunday expressed an expectation, even a desire that American troops would remain in Afghanistan after the NATO mission ends in December 2014, although they emphasized that no decision had been made.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the United States would sustain a strategic partnership with Afghanistan, and they cited a decision by the NATO heads of state during a summit meeting last year in President Obama’s hometown, Chicago, that long-term support for Kabul would include military assistance.

“In Chicago, we also said that we’re committing to an enduring presence,” Mr. Panetta said. “And I believe that the president of the United States is going to do everything possible to implement the Chicago agreements.”

During joint appearances on the NBC News program “Meet the Press” and the CNN program “State of the Union,” Mr. Panetta and General Dempsey sought to define and defend an 11-year-old mission in Afghanistan whose objectives have become fuzzy in the minds of many Americans. Mr. Obama is weighing how rapidly to withdraw the remaining troops and considering how many to propose leaving there after 2014.

In advance of the Washington visit last month by President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, some White House officials said one option would be to leave no troops behind, though some viewed those comments as a negotiating tactic. Kabul and Washington must agree on any American military presence after the conclusion of the NATO mandate.

Some sticking points remain, including a Defense Department demand that American service personnel receive immunity from prosecution in Afghanistan, with any misconduct to be adjudicated under the Pentagon’s Uniform Code of Military Justice, not Afghan law. The Departments of Defense and State also sought, but failed to secure, a similar agreement to leave a sizable training and advisory force in Iraq after the end of combat there.

“No one has ever suggested zero to me,” General Dempsey said, referring to the number of postwar troops in Afghanistan, although he stressed that “the decision on numbers hasn’t been made yet.”

Pressed to define the mission in Afghanistan, General Dempsey said it was “to establish a secure and capable Afghanistan that can govern itself and ensure that Al Qaeda never again establishes a safe haven in that country.” He argued that coalition forces have diminished the Taliban’s capabilities. “Violence has gone down,” he said. “We’re also developing an Afghan Army that has increased its operational skill to provide security.”

Mr. Panetta expressed confidence that President Obama’s choice to succeed him, former Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, would be a strong defense secretary, despite a bitterly partisan confirmation hearing last week in which Mr. Hagel stumbled over some answers. General Dempsey noted that several important security issues like Afghanistan, where 66,000 American troops are at war, were nearly absent during a full day of Senate questioning of Mr. Hagel.

Mr. Panetta criticized the agenda pursued by some senators in their questioning of Mr. Hagel. He said, for example, that not enough attention had been paid to the Pentagon budget and what would happen if automatic budget cuts, called sequestration, go into effect as scheduled on March 1.

General Dempsey said that sequestration cuts would be only part of the limits on military spending. He noted that the Defense Department is now operating under a continuing resolution on its spending, and he estimated that total cuts in the last half of the fiscal year could reach $52 billion.