The Pentagon is moving to get three of the four combat brigades requested by commanders into Afghanistan by summer, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday as he traveled here to meet with military leaders. In his most specific comments to date about how soon he will meet the call for up to 20,000 more troops in Afghanistan, Gates said he will not have to cut troop levels further in Iraq to free up at least two of those three brigades for Afghan duty. At the same time, Gates said a key «course correction» in the Afghanistan war for the administration of President-elect Barack Obama will be to build the Afghan army and better cooperate with Kabul on security operations. «I think there's a concern on the part of some of the Afghans that we sort of tell them what we're going to do, instead of taking proposals to them and getting their input and then working out with them what we're going to do, so it's a real partnership,» Gates told reporters traveling with him to Afghanistan. «That's an important aspect of this, that I think we need a course correction.» Gates was scheduled to meet with Gen. David McKiernan, the commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, and to gather with U.S. troops in Kandahar, according to a report of Associated Press.
