Pat Dollard

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Politico:

Gen. David Petraeus will be given the “flexibility” to submit recommendations on the Afghanistan strategy once he arrives there, but he is on board with the overall approach, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said today.

“The president has established the strategy, but from my perspective, Gen. Petraeus will have the flexibility to look at the campaign plan and the approach and — and all manner of things when he gets to Afghanistan, assuming Senate confirmation,” Gates said at the Pentagon on Thursday.

Any new commander can make changes as he sees fit, he said. “And so my expectation is, certainly, that that’s what Gen. Petraeus will do widely and make adjustments.”

Among the issues Petraeus may examine carefully involve the rules of engagement, which govern when troops can and cannot fire. Some believe those rules under McChrystal were too restrictive, effectively tying one hand behind the backs of troops.

McChrystal had emphasized the need to protect the civilian population — a tenet of an effective counterinsurgency strategy. Petraeus, who literally wrote the book on counterinsurgency by writing the Army’s manual on it, is sensitive to this issue.

Another issue is the July 2011 deadline to begin withdrawing troops. Petraeus testimony last week suggested that he had some concerns about that timeline. After fainting during testimony, Petraeus returned to the Senate Armed Services Committee the next day to reinforce the message: that the July 2011 deadline is the beginning of the end, not the end to the end.

“It is important that July 2011 be seen for what it is: the date when a process beings, based on conditions, not the date when the U.S. heads for the exits,” Petraeus said.

Only about 20,000 troops of the “surge” of 30,000 Obama ordered up last year are there. By fall, the U.S. will have about 100,000 troops in Afghanistan. The president’s decision to begin pulling troops out next summer stands, he said.

In a brief interview on Capitol Hill with CNN’s Dana Bash, Petraeus said he supported Obama’s strategy but seemed to leave room to tweak it as needed. “I support the president’s policy and I will also provide the best professional military advice as we conduct assessments,” he said.

Gates also acknowledged that progress in Afghanistan, in particular in the southern sector, has been “slower and harder than we anticipated,” but at the same time said it’s not as bad as it seems to be.

“I do not believe we are bogged down,” he said