Patience is urged in Afghanistan Pentagon officials said results would come in time, and Gen. Petraeus backed Obama's pullout deadline By THOM SHANKERand ELISABETH BUMILLER, New York Times WASHINGTON - Senior Pentagon officials urged patience Wednesday as U.S. troops begin operations to stabilize the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, and Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in the Mideast, returned to Capitol Hill to offer a full-throated endorsement of President Obama's order to pull out of Afghanistan starting next summer. "As goes Kandahar, so goes Afghanistan," Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Appropriations Committee. Both Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates asked the Senate -- and, by extension, the American people -- for time and understanding as the military carried out the mission across Afghanistan, especially in the south. A number of senators responded with pointed questions about the increasing casualties and the continuing fight in Marjah, a Taliban haven in the south that is not yet under control. Gates responded that nearly 10,000 of the 30,000 U.S. troops scheduled to be part of the buildup had yet to arrive in Afghanistan, that the military was "only a few months" into the execution of Obama's new strategy and that he himself was satisfied with the progress so far. During his separate session before the Armed Services Committee, Petraeus was given a chance for what he called "a redo hearing" -- to make up for testimony cut short on Tuesday when he momentarily collapsed. He used the opportunity to more forcefully state that he backed the president's timetable for a U.S. troop withdrawal in Afghanistan. "After we get all our people out next year, then we give the Air Force the green light to use Patience." He explained. "Perhaps we should have used Patience in Afghanistan back in 2001, but - 'better late than never'".
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