“I would try and maximize my combat capability as long as this process goes on — I think that’s a no-brainer,” he said. “I’d opt to keep the shooters, and take the support out first.”
Mr. Gates also said he anticipated that the administration would conduct a review of force levels in Afghanistan that went far beyond simply announcing the number of troops returning home starting in July, as pledged by President Obama.
The administration was likely to create what Mr. Gates called “bookends,” an initial number to be withdrawn beginning in July and a date by which all of the 30,000 reinforcements sent last year would have departed Afghanistan.
His comments came during a farewell tour across south and southwestern Afghanistan, home to most of the 30,000 additional troops sent by Mr. Obama to push back a tenacious insurgency.
At each stop, the troops asked Mr. Gates about future force levels. He noted that many of the logistical, engineering and construction units sent to build housing and lay runways to support the surge now could be sent home while leaving the combat force undiminished.
He said that Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander in Afghanistan, had not yet given the president formal options for withdrawing the 30,000 surge troops. A separate timetable would manage the departure of all foreign troops, including the rest of the American combat force beside the surge units, about 70,000 troops, by the end of 2014 as agreed by NATO and the Afghan government.
The decisions on forces in Afghanistan could mirror how Mr. Obama managed the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. While a status of forces agreement between Washington and Baghdad requires American combat forces to leave by the end of this year, Mr. Obama unilaterally set an earlier date by which the military first reduced its presence to 50,000.
Senior Pentagon officials noted that after Mr. Obama set a firm deadline for dropping to 50,000 troops in Iraq, he then let his commanders in Baghdad manage the specifics of which units to order home and when, so long as they met the president’s ultimate timeline.
A similar system may be decided by the administration to manage the withdrawal of the surge units from Afghanistan, officials said, with General Petraeus, and his nominated successor, Lt. Gen. John R. Allen, given the leeway to decide how to draw down forces to meet the president’s deadline.
Mr. Gates advocated sustaining the combat force to continue pressing the insurgency to give up the fight and negotiate reconciliation with the government in Kabul. With continued success on the battlefield, Mr. Gates said, such talks could begin in earnest by late this year.
Mr. Gates also said the reduction of American troops should be carefully calibrated so as not to give allied nations “reason to rush to the exits.”
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