Panetta signals a new tone on U.S.-led wars

The new Defense secretary makes it clear he wants to set limits — on his military commanders, on the expectations of America's allies and on the U.S. defense budget — to get the Pentagon off a permanent war footing.

By David S. Cloud,
Los Angeles Times
5:03 PM PDT, July 12, 2011

Reporting from Baghdad

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta carried an unmistakable message on his first overseas trip since taking office this month: One way or another, the two wars that have consumed the Pentagon for much of the last decade are nearing an end.

Panetta declared after departing Washington on Friday that Al Qaeda appeared on the verge of defeat. In Afghanistan, he stressed that the U.S. military must transfer security responsibility to the Afghan army. And in Iraq he emphasized that most, if not all, U.S. troops would pull out by year's end.

In tone and substance, it was a noticeable shift from his predecessor, Robert M. Gates. During his tenure, Gates gradually adopted the view of many of his top commanders that defeating insurgents and terrorists was a generational struggle, requiring painstaking counterinsurgency warfare, prolonged deployments of U.S. forces abroad, and ever-growing defense budgets.

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