Gates Wants Afghan Withdrawal to Leave Combat Troops

“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 Gates called “bookends,” an initial number to be withdrawn beginning in July and a date by which all of the 30,000 reinforcements sent last year would have departed Afghanistan.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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Gates Wants Afghan Withdrawal to Leave Combat Troops

 

“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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Bits: News Aggregator Zite Wants to Play Nice With Publishers

Zite, a news aggregator for the iPad whose app has irked major news publishers, said Monday that Mark Johnson, a longtime adviser to the company, would become its new chief executive.

But the announcement those news publishers were likely to focus on was Zite’s release of a new version of its app, which it calls a “personalized magazine.” It said it was intended to quell the criticism from publishers.

A month ago, Zite, which competes with other news aggregators like the well-financed Flipboard, Pulse and News.me, received a cease and desist letter signed by a long list of major publishers, including The Washington Post Company, Gannett, Dow Jones and The Associated Press. The publishers accused company, which is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, of using their intellectual property without permission.

Zite quickly defended itself. In a blog post, Ali Davar, the previous chief executive, said the company obtained content by crawling sites, much like search engines do, and that it would respect any site that asked not to be crawled. Mr. Davar, who is now Zite’s president, also said that while Zite stripped articles of ads to make formatting for reading easier, it would honor any publisher’s request to show the ads in “Web-view mode,” where they would appear just a they do on the publisher’s Web site.

“Zite is eager to work with publishers in a way that benefits everyone – most importantly end users,” Mr. Davar said.

In the new version of the Zite app, content that appears in Web-view mode will load faster and will be easier to share with others, Mr. Johnson said. Users will also be able to read content in Web mode without leaving the app.

“In complying with the [cease & desist], more content needs to be served in Web mode,” the company said on its blog. “So it’s important to us to improve the user experience for articles rendered in that view.”

Previously Mr. Johnson worked at Microsoft, as senior program manager at Bing. He joined Microsoft via its acquisition of Powerset. He previously worked at other hot start-ups, including SideStep, which was acquired by Kayak.com, and Kosmix, which Wal-Mart bought recently.

Mr. Johnson has worked as an adviser to Zite for nearly two years. The company, originally called Worio, has developed a technology that analyzes content a bit like Pandora analyses music, he said. As a result, it can recommend articles based on what a person has read, shared or liked, he said.

“Over the next six to nine months we want to work with innovative publishers to figure out monetization strategies that will make money for everyone,” Mr. Johnson said.

Zite, which plans to remain in Vancouver, will also open offices in the San Francisco area to tap local talent, Mr. Johnson said.

The market for aggregators that turn Web articles and links shared on Facebook and Twitter into digital versions of a customized magazine on the iPad has grown increasingly crowded. Flipboard, the best known of the services, recently said it had raised $50 million in financing. News.me, a site backed by publishers, including The New York Times Company, was released last week.