Mullen: Counterinsurgency Does Not Mean Permanent War

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), after having pledged support to the strategy articulated by his presidential rival, gets upset over the July 2011 transition “strategic inflection point.” He all but called it deceitful, and asked Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, if setting the date contradicts counterinsurgency principles that call for reassuring the local populace that it will not be abandoned to the insurgents.

Mullen rejects the criticism, saying that by 2011, “we’ll have very solid indicators at that point” as to whether the strategy is working. By July 2011, “We start transitioning … it’s not a date that we’re leaving.” McCain, dissatisfied, said that Obama set an expectation that the war will end on that date, adding it was a mistake for Obama to announce it.