US strategy is paying off in Afghanistan: Gates

Defence Secretary Robert Gates on Wednesday said he was "convinced" the US strategy in Afghanistan was paying off, a year after President Barack Obama ordered in reinforcements.
Signalling the outcome of a White House review of the war due out this month, Gates said his visit to key battlefronts over two days confirmed that the Taliban was losing ground and under mounting pressure.
"I will go back convinced that our strategy is working and that we will be able to achieve key goals set out by President Barack Obama last year" and endorsed by Nato allies at a November summit, Gates told a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
"The bottom line is that in the last 12 months, we've come a long way, making progress that even just in the last few months has exceeded my expectations," he said.
US officials and commanders have suggested for months that they will stick with the current strategy, but Gates' emphatic public comments -- his strongest to date -- leave little doubt that Washington will maintain its massive troop presence with no major withdrawal on the horizon.
The strategy involves nearly 100,000 US troops plus more than 40,000 allied forces, engaged in a bloody, painstaking counter-insurgency fight as well as a costly effort to train and arm the Afghan army and police.