The White House Thursday rebuked critics it implied favored an Afghan war "without end" after Republican candidate Mitt Romney said plans to end the US combat mission next year betrayed "naivety."
Mounting political debate over future Afghan strategy foreshadows what is likely to be a sharp clash between President Barack Obama and his eventual Republican opponent in November's presidential election over the war.
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta effectively injected the war in Afghanistan back into the heat of the campaign on Wednesday, unveiling the updated strategy as he flew to Brussels for a NATO meeting.
He told reporters aboard his plane that Washington hopes to end its combat mission in Afghanistan in 2013 and to shift to a training role with the Afghan National Army, one year before most US troops are due to withdraw.
Romney, who accuses Obama of "appeasing" US enemies, said at a campaign event Wednesday that the troop decision would hand an important advantage to US foes in Afghanistan and faulted the ideal of any set withdrawal date.
"Why in the world would you go to the people you are fighting with and tell them the day you are pulling out your troops," Romney said.
"It makes absolutely no sense, it is naivety, it is putting in jeopardy the mission of the United States of America and our commitment to freedom."
White House spokesman Jay Carney declined to directly rebut Romney's comments but hit out at critics of Obama's approach on Afghanistan, and accused the previous Bush administration of neglecting the war.
"The president has a very clear, focused, achievable policy with a lot of muscle behind it," Carney said. "What he does not support is war without end."
Carney accused some Obama critics of ignoring the president's focused strategy and clinging to support for a previous Bush administration plan that "no two people involved in it could explain."
"Let's be clear that the policy (Obama) inherited was one of, you know, neglect in Afghanistan because of the focus on the war in Iraq," he said.
"He made clear that he would heighten the focus on the real enemy, which was Al-Qaeda. He has done that."
The idea of moving towards an advisory mission had previously been mooted, but Panetta's comments marked the first time the administration had posited an exact target date for the transfer of mission.
"Hopefully by the mid-to-latter part of 2013, we'll be able to make a transition from a combat role to a train, advise and assist role," Panetta said.
The comments were the strongest sign yet that Obama, who carried out a 2008 campaign pledge to bring all US troops home from Iraq, wants to go into the next election arguing he is well on the way to ending the 10-year Afghan war.
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