Dempsey arrives in Afghanistan to assess transition efforts

The U.S. military’s top uniformed officer arrived in Afghanistan
Saturday to assess the ongoing effort to end America’s war in the
country within the next year.

{mosads}Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey will meet
with Gen. Joseph Dunford, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, along
with other Afghan and coalition leaders during the two-day visit.

He will also meet with new the Central Command chief, Gen. Lloyd Austin, and
U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan James Cunningham, according to the
Defense Department.

Saturday’s Afghan visit will be Dempsey’s first in country since
Dunford took over command from retired Marine Corps Gen. John Allen.

Specifically, Dempsey plans to “review the campaign” in Afghanistan
with Dunford, nearly two months after the Marine Corps general assumed
command of American and allied forces in the country.

“One of the things I am going to ask . . . is what have you learned,”
Dempsey told reporters regarding his upcoming talks with Dunford.

“If he tells me ‘nothing,’ I’m going to say ‘maybe we got the wrong
guy.’ ” the four-star general said.

That said, Dunford has provided some insight into how he sees the over
decade-long war coming to an end.

Dunford and Cunningham voiced their support in March to deploy 13,600
American forces in Afghanistan after the administration’s 2014
withdrawal deadline.

The postwar plan backed by Dunford and Cunningham falls in line with
recommendations made by former Central Command chief Gen. James
Mattis and goes against initial White House estimates for that postwar
force.

The soonest the White House and Pentagon could have an Afghan postwar
plan in place is this summer, Dempsey told reporters on Saturday.

But the Afghan insurgency’s resiliency and steep learning curve facing
the country’s nascent military all but guarantees the fight against
the Taliban will endure even after America’s war ends, according to
Dunford.

“My assumption is that the [Afghan] insurgency will still exist after
2014,” Dunford said in an interview with ABC News on Monday.

“The conditions are not yet set for a stable and secure Afghanistan in
the long-term,” he added.