Robert Gates Praises Progress in Afghanistan

Saying progress in the war has "exceeded my expectations," Defense Secretary Robert Gates praised the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan for making the nation more secure.

Gates gave the rosy review Wednesday in Afghanistan, after stopping at U.S. military bases and sitting down with President Hamid Karzai, The Washington Post reported.

The defense secretary will return to Washington "convinced that our strategy is working," he said at a news conference with Karzai

"The bottom line is that over the last 12 months we've come a long way," he said. "There is no denying that the security climate is improving and that the sacrifices of Afghan and coalition troops are achieving greater safety and security."

Gates' visit comes a week before the Obama Administration is set to complete the first major review of its war strategy since last December, when the president ordered a surge of 30,000 additional troops.

The Post points out that Gates' assessment is more positive than recent war reports delivered to Congress by the White House and the Pentagon, which were "more cautious and critical."

Officials have touted progress in clearing Taliban fighters out of Kandahar province, and connecting the key region to nearby Helmand province. But military leaders say much more work remains to try and secure the border with Pakistan, where insurgents are dug in and still gathering strength.

At the news conference Gates also answered questions about the release by WikiLeaks of hundreds of thousands of sensitive diplomatic and military documents. The defense secretary said the leaks were "extraordinarily embarrassing for the United States," the Post said. He praised Karzai for reacting in "an extraordinarily statesmanlike way" in the wake of the WikiLeaks document dump.