Senior military officials appeared before Congress on Wednesday to urge patience and support for their operations in Afghanistan. Discussing the military’s plans to capture the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Appropriations Committee, “As goes Kandahar, so goes Afghanistan.” Meanwhile, the top US commander overseeing the Afghan war, General David Petraeus, told the Senate Armed Services Committee the US is on track to begin withdrawing forces from Afghanistan by next summer. Petraeus said the Obama administration’s July 2011 withdrawal deadline would mark the beginning of a pullback, not its completion.

Gen. David Petraeus: “What I have tried to explain today is my understanding of what July 2011 means and how it is important again that people do realize, especially our partners, especially our comrades-in-arms in Afghanistan and in the region, that that is not the date when we look for the door and try to turn off the light, but rather a date at which a process begins.”