Change of guard: No solution in Afghanistan minus Pakistan, says Mullen

Relation with Pakistan not where it needs to be says Obama. New JCSC General Dempsey old class mate of Kayani.

WASHINGTON: There can be no solution to the conflict in Afghanistan without Pakistan, the outgoing Joint Chief’s of Staff Committee (JCSC) chairman, Admiral Mike Mullen said on Friday.

"I continue to believe that there is no solution in the region without Pakistan, and no stable future in the region without a partnership," Mullen said at a ceremony where he stood down from the post, handing it over to the incoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey.

"I urge Marty to remember the importance of Pakistan to all of this, to try and do a better job than I did with that vexing and yet vital relationship," Mullen added in remarks.

"Our strategy is the right one. We must keep executing it."

Last week Mullen accused Pakistan of exporting violence to Afghanistan through proxies and charged that the Haqqani network, an al Qaeda-linked group, was a "veritable arm" of Pakistani intelligence.

His comments triggered new tensions with Washington's uneasy ally, Islamabad, with Pakistani leaders closing ranks against US pressure for action against the Haqqanis and refusing to be pressured into doing more in the war on terror.

Mullen also told Dempsey at the ceremony at Fort Myers in Virginia that "his biggest challenge is going to be Afghanistan" where more than 100,000 American troops are due to hand over responsibility for security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.

The challenge would be "in seeing this critical transition through to its completion, in making sure that the security gains we have made are not squandered by the scourge of corruption or the lack of good governance that still plagues the country," Mullen said.

Mullen retires from the US military after 43 years of service.

US-Pak relation not in the right place: Obama

President Barack Obama in a radio interview said that the United States will continue to push Pakistan to do more to curb militants based in its border regions while maintaining intelligence cooperation with Islamabad.

"We've been very firm with them about needing to go after safe havens inside of Pakistan, but we've tried to also preserve the intelligence cooperation that we've obtained that's allowed us to go after al Qaeda in a very effective way," he said.

"There's no doubt that the relationship is not where it needs to be and we are going to keep on pressing them to recognize that it is in their interest -- not just ours – to make sure that extremists are not operating within their borders," added Obama.

Speaking at the ceremony, US president Barack Obama reminded US military and the world the lengths that it would go to against its enemies. "We will be determined, we will be deliberate, we will be relentless, we will be resolute in our commitment to destroy terrorist networks that aim to kill Americans," a steely Obama said after an air raid in Yemen killed Awlaqi Friday.

(Read: Radical US-born cleric Awlaqi killed: Yemen defence ministry)

General Martin Dempsey takes over from Mullen

General Martin Dempsey on Friday took over as the US military's top officer from Admiral Mike Mullen.

Dempsey has led soldiers in combat in Iraq and is keenly aware of the growing strain on the force after years of war.

An Irish-American who taught English literature to cadets at West Point, the 59-year-old graduated from the same class at the military academy as another four-star general, David Petraeus.

Until now, Petraeus - who rose to fame as commander in Iraq and had stepped down as chief in Afghanistan to take over the CIA - had largely overshadowed his former classmate.

As commander of the 1st Armored Division in Iraq in 2003-2004, Dempsey oversaw tanks and troops that fought insurgents led by Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, pushing the militia out of southern cities.

In his new job as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dempsey's two combat tours will help shape how he advises the president as the United States wraps up its mission in Iraq and begins to withdraw some of the 100,000 American troops in Afghanistan.

"One of things he'll bring to the job is current experience in the wars that we're in," said David Barno, a retired lieutenant general and senior adviser at the Center for a New American Security.

Dempsey takes over as chairman at a time of turmoil in the Arab world and growing pressure on the defense budget, with the Pentagon bracing for cuts and a possible scaled-back force.

Unlike the outgoing chairman Admiral Mike Mullen - a reserved figure with a soft-spoken manner - Dempsey is an extrovert with an irreverent sense of humour and a penchant for singing in public.

Proud of his working-class roots in New York and New Jersey, Dempsey's favourite tune is Frank Sinatra's rendition of "New York, New York," which he belts out with gusto in unabashed performances captured on YouTube.

Dempsey finds an old acquaintance in his most ‘vexing’ challenge

Apart from Petraeus, Dempsey had another prominent classmate as a younger officer.

At the US Army's staff college in the 1980s, Dempsey got to know a Pakistani officer, Ashfaq Kayani - now Pakistan's powerful army chief who has clashed with the United States in the aftermath of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Dempsey is known as a thoughtful, independent-minded leader who shuns formalities and goes out of his way to hear from junior officers, said Barno, a friend and former colleague.

At Central Command, Dempsey was "known for going to the back rows of the auditorium when he was giving his morning updates, asking junior officers what they thought," Barno said.

He has "an ability to feel the soul of the organisation, to really feel what young soldiers and young leaders are going through and to connect with them in ways better than almost anyone I know," Barno told AFP.

Steeped in US strategy on the Middle East having served as a deputy and acting chief of Central Command, Dempsey likely will focus much of his time on potential threats arising from the political earthquake shaking the region.

Formerly in charge of training and doctrine, Dempsey worked to ensure the Army absorbed the lessons of a decade of counter-insurgency warfare, and warned his superiors that the long-running wars have undercut training efforts and jeopardized the health of the force.

In describing his time in Iraq, Dempsey has stressed the importance of restraint, with troops moving in carefully instead of blasting away indiscriminately.

"In terms of precision, at no time did we work our way through a city building by building or room by room," Dempsey once said in an interview.

"If we did go in on the ground, we penetrated, attacked the militia and then moved back out to minimize the risk of being seen as creating excessive collateral damage or prolonging suffering needlessly."