NATO: Combat role in Afghanistan could pass 2014
Mark Sedwill
Mark Sedwill said the end of 2014 was not a deadline. "It's a goal " he told reporters in the capital. "It's realistic but not guaranteed."
 He said the transition to Afghan control of security will be slow and piecemeal -- often starting with individual districts and building up to the province level. Each area will be evaluated for transfer based on four criteria -- the security situation  the capacity of Afghan security forces in the area  the preparations of NATO forces and the progress toward governance reforms.
 In addition  specialist strike units that target terrorist operatives are likely to keep conducting operations even after the Afghan government has taken over responsibility  Sedwill said.
 He said both 2011 -- the date set for U.S. troops to begin drawing down -- and 2014 are "intermediate milestones" in a larger mission that will last much longer.
 A summit of Afghan leaders and allies Lisbon this weekend will aim to set broad terms for that longer mission. NATO and the Afghan government plan to sign an agreement that will set out the international community's commitment to Afghanistan  including support for training forces  the growth of the Afghan military and intelligence sharing  Sedwill said.
 "We want to build the Afghan leadership so they're taking more and more responsibility for themselves but we recognize it has got to be underwritten by long-term international commitment " Sedwill said.
 Even with the NATO mission appearing to stretch out longer and longer  Sedwill said that the momentum had shifted in NATO's favor.
 "It's still clearly fragile. There are significant risks and there will be a long and hard campaign ahead  but we believe that in 2010 we have achieved what we wished to  which is that we've regained the initiative -- having  candidly  lost it in the past few years " Sedwill said.
 He said that this assessment was the conclusion of an assessment of the Afghan campaign that he had conducted with Gen. David Petraeus  the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
[TGT] said the end of 2014 was not a deadline. "It's a goal " he told reporters in the capital. "It's realistic but not guaranteed."
 He said the transition to Afghan control of security will be slow and piecemeal -- often starting with individual districts and building up to the province level. Each area will be evaluated for transfer based on four criteria -- the security situation  the capacity of Afghan security forces in the area  the preparations of NATO forces and the progress toward governance reforms.
 In addition  specialist strike units that target terrorist operatives are likely to keep conducting operations even after the Afghan government has taken over responsibility  [TGT] said.
 [TGT] said both 2011 -- the date set for U.S. troops to begin drawing down -- and 2014 are "intermediate milestones" in a larger mission that will last much longer.
 A summit of Afghan leaders and allies Lisbon this weekend will aim to set broad terms for that longer mission. NATO and the Afghan government plan to sign an agreement that will set out the international community's commitment to Afghanistan  including support for training forces  the growth of the Afghan military and intelligence sharing  [TGT] said.
 "We want to build the Afghan leadership so they're taking more and more responsibility for themselves but we recognize it has got to be underwritten by long-term international commitment [TGT] said.
 Even with the NATO mission appearing to stretch out longer and longer  [TGT] said that the momentum had shifted in NATO's favor.
 "It's still clearly fragile. There are significant risks and there will be a long and hard campaign ahead  but we believe that in 2010 we have achieved what we wished to  which is that we've regained the initiative -- having  candidly  lost it in the past few years [TGT] said.
 [TGT] said that this assessment was the conclusion of an assessment of the Afghan campaign that [TGT] had conducted with Gen. David Petraeus  the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.