Petraeus gets Senate panel nod

WASHINGTON — The Senate Armed Services Committee voted Tuesday to confirm Gen. David Petraeus as the next commander of U.S. and foreign forces in Afghanistan after the general told senators he would insist on “an unshakeable commitment to teamwork among all elements of the U.S. government.”

The Obama administration is seeking Petraeus’ quick confirmation to replace Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who resigned last week after he and his senior aides made comments to Rolling Stone magazine criticizing Vice President Joe Biden and other senior officials.

The Senate Armed Services Committee referred his nomination to the full Senate, which was to vote on his confirmation today. The general is expected in Kabul by Friday.

In his opening statement to the committee, Petraeus praised McChrystal for his strategic accomplishments in Afghanistan over the past year. He did not directly address McChrystal’s comments in the magazine ar-ticle.

Senators from both parties praised Petraeus in their opening statements and indicated that he would be easily confirmed. Sen. John McCain, RAriz., the ranking Republican on the committee, called Petraeus an “American hero” for his role in stabilizing the war in Iraq. Formerly the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Petraeus now serves as commander of the U.S. Central Command.

But senators also made clear they would use the confirmation hearing to debate the Obama administration’s Afghan war policy, including the president’s stated commitment to begin withdrawing at least some U.S. troops by July 2011.

Petraeus emphasized the need to work more closely with high-ranking civilian members of the Obama administration in Afghanistan, with NATO and other allied leaders and with top Afghan officials. “We are all firmly united in seeking to forge unity of effort,” the general said.

His remarks contrasted with McChrystal’s comments to Rolling Stone, in which he complained about having to attend a meeting at the French Ministry of Defense, disparaged his civilian counterpart in Kabul - U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry - and complained about receiving e-mails from Richard Holbrooke, President Barack Obama’s special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Petraeus said he would continue McChrystal’s strategy of trying to avoid civilian deaths in Afghanistan, a keystone of the U.S. military’s counterinsurgency strategy. But in a nod to U.S. troops who have complained that McChrystal had tied their hands in the war by making it more difficult to engage Taliban fighters, Petraeus said troops under his command would not shrink from a fight.

“Focusing on securingthe people does not, however, mean that we don’t go after the enemy,” he said. “In fact, protecting the population inevitably requires killing, capturing or turning the insurgents. Our forces have been doing that, and we will continue to do that.

“I am keenly aware of concerns by some of our troopers on the ground about the application of our rules of engagement and the tactical directive,” he added. “They should know that I will look very hard at this issue.”

Senators pushed Petraeus to declare whether he backed Obama’s policy to begin withdrawing U.S. troops in July 2011. Obama has said that the pace and degree of the withdrawal will depend on conditions in Afghanistan at that time.

“Not only did I say I supported it, I said I agreed with it,” Petraeus replied.

Referring to the July 2011 deadline, Petraeus said, “It was not just for domestic political purposes. It was also meant for audiences in Kabul, that we will not be there forever.” He quickly added, “Butwe will be there, presumably for quite some time.”

Republicans criticized Obama for setting the deadline, saying that it gave the Taliban reason to believe that the U.S. commitment to the war was limited. Some senators said the White House has sent mixed signals over whether the withdrawal would consist of a token number of forces, subject to a fungible timeline, or a fixed date involving large numbers of troops.

“It depends on who you seem to be talking to,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. “Somebody needs to get it straight, without a doubt, what the hell we’re going to do in July.”

Ahead of Tuesday’s session, committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said, “On the Democratic side, there is solid support. But there’s also the beginnings of fraying of that support” for the war.

Petraeus left open the possibility of recommending that Obama delay his plans to start withdrawing troops from Afghanistan next summer if the new commander can’t turn around the stalemated war.

“There will be an assessment at the end of this year after which undoubtedly we’ll make certain tweaks, refinements, perhaps some significant changes,” Petraeus said.

“My sense is that the tough fighting will continue; indeed, it may get more intense in the next few months,” he said. “As we take away the enemy’s safe havens and reduce the enemy’s freedom of action, the insurgents will fight back.”

GUNMEN KILL U.N. WORKER

In Afghanistan, meanwhile, an Afghan man working for the United Nations was shot and killed in his vehicle Tuesday near a busy traffic circle in Kabul, the world body said.

Elsewhere, U.S. and Afghan forces battled hundreds of militants from an al-Qaida linked group for a third day in Kunar province of eastern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said. Two U.S. soldiers were killed Sunday in the first day of the operation.

The Afghan U.N. employee who died was driving a white pickup with the blue U.N. logo painted on the side.Another Afghan member of the U.N. staff, who was in the vehicle, was not wounded, the U.N. said.

The morning shooting occurred amid heavy traffic near Massoud circle, an intersection near the U.S. Embassy and an American military base. Two windows on the truck were shattered and blood was spattered inside the car.

The attack in Kunar was directed against insurgents believed responsible for the roadside bombing that killed five American servicemen in the area on June 7, a U.S. statement said.

The militants were believed to be members of the Haqqani group, a faction of the Taliban based in Pakistan which has close ties to al-Qaida. About 600 U.S. and Afghan troops are taking part in the operation, the U.S. statement said.

Afghanistan’s top prosecutor, meanwhile, defended himself Tuesday against allegations that he’s being pressured not to go after politically powerful figures accused of corruption, an issue that has undermined public trust in President Hamid Karzai’s struggling government.

Mohammad Ishaq Aloko also accused the U.S. ambassador, Eikenberry, of overstepping his diplomatic authority by suggesting that he step down as attorney general if he wasn’t going to charge an Afghan banker in a corruption case.

“It is against all diplomatic ethics that the U.S. ambassador is telling me: ‘If you don’t put this person in prison, you must resign,’” Aloko told reporters, recounting a conversation he had with Eikenberry two weeks ago. “I am the attorney general of an independent country.” Information for this article was contributed by Craig Whitlock of The Washington Post, by Elisabeth Bumiller of The New York Times and by Anne Gearan, Anne Flaherty and Deb Riechmann of The Associated Press.