US ambassador to Afghanistan: Time to move on

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan pledged Thursday to move forward in a unified mission with Gen. David Petraeus after the ouster of Gen. Stanley McChrystal as the top commander in the war.

"The United States cannot allow diversions to prevent us from carrying out our mission with unity of purpose," Eikenberry said in a speech to Afghan journalists. "Our president felt that a change was needed to maintain that unity of purpose and so he made that change. He told us that it is time for us to come together and that's what we are going to do."

"We continue to have a very clear goal. We are going to break the Taliban's momentum. We are going to build Afghan capacity, especially in the area of your army and your police," Eikenberry said.

Eikenberry and McChrystal publicly clashed over strategy in Afghanistan while they led the civilian and military sides of the U.S. mission in the country.

But the U.S. ambassador commended McChrystal on Thursday.

"Stan and I have known each other for a very long time, and worked shoulder-to-shoulder here together under very difficult circumstances over this past year. He was an excellent partner," Eikenberry said. He said he had not read the Rolling Stone article. ....... - US ambassador to Afghanistan calls for unity

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