U.S. policy unchanged, admiral assures Karzai

KABUL, Afghanistan — America’s top military officer assured President Hamid Karzai on Saturday that newly chosen NATO commander Gen. David Petraeus would pursue the policies of his ousted predecessor, whom the Afghan leader warmly praised for reducing civilian casualties.

“The leadership has changed, but the policy hasn’t changed,” said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “The strategy hasn’t changed. And we are very much committed to it.”

During a 45-minute meeting with the Afghan leader, Mullen explained the events that surrounded President Barack Obama’s decision to dismiss Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of the U.S. and NATO forces. McChrystal resigned after he and his aides were quoted in Rolling Stone magazine making disparaging remarks about top Obama administration officials guiding the civilian mission in the war.

Mullen, who spent a halfday in Kabul, also met with U.S. Embassy officials and had a video teleconference with regional commanders in the field. To both sides, Mullen stressed the importance of a good “lash up” between civilian and military efforts to beat back a resurgent Taliban and extend the Karzai government’s control beyond Kabul.

“That is a mandate for the leadership,” Mullen said. “If we don’t make this happen, we are going to fail.”

And, he warned, “We do not have the luxury of time.”

To press that agenda of enhanced civilian-military cooperation, Mullen met with the U.S. ambassador in Kabul, Karl Eikenberry, a retired three-star general who had well-publicized disputes with McChrystal, as well as with Mark Sedwill, the British diplomat who serves as NATO’s senior civilian representative there.

Sedwill offered an assessment of optimism for the effort now under way, but tempered it with an acknowledgment of past missteps in the fight against the insurgency.

“I don’t think we’ve regained the initiative yet, but we’ve arrested their initiative,” he said. “In the south, we are taking the fight to them. But that takes time to see.”

Mullen then flew to neighboring Pakistan, where he repeated his message to President Asif Ali Zardari and Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

Mullen stressed at the meeting with Karzai that Petraeus had been involved in developing the strategy from the beginning, was attuned to the challenges in Afghanistan and would be able to take over command in a seamless transition. The two talked briefly about the ongoing security operation in Kandahar, a hotbed of insurgent activity, said Capt. John Kirby, a spokesman for Mullen.

Karzai lauded McChrystal, saying he was able to “reduce civilian casualties, create good cooperation between the Afghan and international forces and strengthen and develop the Afghan forces,” according to a statement from the Afghan presidential palace.

A year ago, McChrystal imposed new restrictions on how NATO troops fight the enemy. The rules, credited for reducing the number of civilians killed and wounded by international troops, helped win McChrystal the trust of many Afghans.

But some troops believe the rules cost American lives and force them to give up the advantage of overwhelming firepower to an enemy who shoots and disappears back into the civilian population.

Kirby said that for now, all the rules of engagement that were in place under McChrystal will remain in effect.

“Gen. Petraeus, as any new commander, has the right when he comes in to review those rules of engagement and may recommend changes to them as he sees fit,” Kirby said. “But we have no indication right now that he has any intention of changing anything.”

Petraeus is to appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday for a confirmation hearing set at an accelerated pace.

Mark Moyar, a counterinsurgency expert, said he expected that Petraeus would reassess the rules and how they were being applied.

“I think morale would not be an issue if the rules permitted success, but in many cases they have made it impossible to defeat the insurgents and to convince the population that we are strong enough to protect them,” he said.

The rules don’t prevent U.S. troops from calling in air support, especially in the rugged east of the country where Taliban fighters are active but the population is smaller than in the agricultural areas of the ethnic Pashtun south, the main focus of the war. But the emphasis is on caution, and officers fear career damage if they mistakenly call for air or heavy weapons support and kill civilians.

Details of the rules are classified, but troops say they cannot fire on a suspected militant unless he is presenting a clear threat. Troops say, for example, that if a fighting-age man emerges from a building from which they are taking fire, the soldiers cannot fire at him unless he is armed or they personally saw him drop a weapon.

TROOPS DOWN

In Kabul, Mullen delivered a special message of encouragement to military officers who had served under McChrystal.

“They are going to be a down group,” Mullen said in an interview. “Any time you lose a commander, particularly one you care so much about, it crushes you.”

But he told senior military officers that McChrystal would want them focusing on the mission, not on his abrupt departure from command. And he told the officers to carry away with them the correct example from the controversy leading to McChrystal’s firing.

He repeated two themes: The military must remain steadfast in its respect for civilian control of the armed forces, and the military must continue to engage with news organizations.

“We need to tell our story,” Mullen said. “We must not shy from engagement. We must not overcompensate.” SATURDAY VIOLENCE

On the battlefield, five international service members died Saturday, NATO said.Two, including at least one American, were killed in two roadside bombings in southern Afghanistan. Two others, including one American, were killed in roadside bomb attacks in the east. That raised to 89 the number of international troops killed so far in June - already the deadliest month of the nearly 9-year old war. The figure includes at least 52 Americans.

Separately, Karzai nominated seven new members of his Cabinet to replace ones rejected by lawmakers. So far, lawmakers have approved only 15 members of Karzai’s 25-member Cabinet. Among the nominations Saturday was Bismullah Mohammadi, a senior commander in the civil war against the Taliban, to replace Hanif Atmar as interior minister.

Atmar, who was in charge of police, and Amrullah Saleh, the former head of Afghan intelligence, resigned earlier this month after Karzai held them responsible for failing to prevent a militant attack on a national conference, or jirga, on how to reach peace with insurgents. Both men were highly regarded by Western officials.

Information for this article was contributed from Kabul by Rahim Faiez and from Kandahar by Mirwais Khan of The Associated Press and from Kabul by Thom Shanker of The New York Times.