By KUNA,
Washington : US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday the Obama administration must decide on a strategy in Afghanistan while the country faces a run-off in last months presidential election.
Gates, who spoke en route to Tokyo, Japan and later South Korea to speak on the US war effort in Afghanistan, said that while the Afghan election was an “evolving process,” the Obama administration was “not just going to sit on our hands, waiting for the outcome of this election and for the emergence of a government in Kabul.” Gates comment comes after other top administration officials balked at the idea of sending tens of thousands more US troops and additional resources to the region until the countrys election results are clearly decided.
“The outcome of the elections and the problems with the elections have complicated the situation for us. But the reality is, it’s not going to be complicated one day and simple the next,” Gates said. “We’re going to have to work with this going forward, and I believe the president will have to make his decisions in the context of that evolutionary process.”