Robert Gates actually said...

I would like to work with Congress in figuring out a way to try and bring some modest control to this program.

July 2011 is the beginning of a process of drawing down in Afghanistan. That process will be based on conditions on the ground.

Neither of which is achievable in any realistic timeframe, or sustainable, given the costs and everything else.

It is to reverse the momentum of the Taliban. It is to deny them control of territory in Afghanistan.