Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, asked Gen. David Petraeus Tuesday whether he agrees with a statement supposedly made by Vice President Joe Biden that "in July of 2011 you're going to see a whole lot of people moving out, bet on it."

Biden's remarks, which referred to the planned date to begin a U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, were reported in Jonathan Alter's book "The Promise."

Petraeus, in response, said that Biden recently told him in an Oval Office meeting that "you should know I am 100 percent supportive of (the current) policy." Petraeus also noted he will be hosting Biden at his current headquarters in Tampa, Florida, on Tuesday night.

"Somebody needs to get it straight ... what the hell we're going to do," Graham said.

A Senate committee hearing on Gen. David Petraeus, picked by President Barack Obama to be the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, was marked Tuesday by bickering over Obama's plan to begin withdrawing troops in July 2011.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Michigan, stressed the date's importance, saying it "imparts a sense of urgency to Afghan leaders" and is an important method of "spurring action." When the date was announced, Levin said, there was a surge in recruits for the Afghan army. FULL POST

Gen. David Petraeus acknowledged Tuesday that U.S.-led military operations in Afghanistan's Marjah district are not going as well "as the most optimistic (initial) predictions." U.S. forces are making progress, he said, but it has been slower and harder than anticipated.

Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, cited the pace of operations in Marjah as one of the reasons for his opposition to the July 2011 date set to begin withdrawal of U.S. troops. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, also blasted the date, telling Petraeus he thinks the Taliban "has the perception (that the United States will) cut and run."

Gen. David Petraeus told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that he "supports" and "agrees" with a July 2011 withdrawal date from Afghanistan.

"I saw (the establishment of the date) most importantly as the message of urgency to accompany the message of enormous (increased U.S.) commitment," he said.

Gen. David Petraeus said Tuesday that one of his goals is to help ensure that the Afghan people know who "has been killing the vast majority" of innocent civilians in their country.

"There's no love lost for the Taliban," he said. Afghans remember the oppression of the Taliban regime, he noted.

Petraeus harkened back to his previous experience heading the U.S. military surge in Iraq. The terror group Al Qaeda in Iraq was hurt by successful U.S. efforts to give them an "extremist" label, he asserted.

Gen. David Petraeus strongly defended the U.S. mission in Afghanistan Tuesday, telling members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that "we should never forget that the 9/11 attacks were planned in southern Afghanistan and that the initial training of the attackers was carried out in camps in Afghanistan."

"Our task in Afghanistan is clear," he said. "We cannot allow al Qaeda or other transnational extremist elements to once again establish sanctuaries from which they can launch attacks on our homeland or on our allies."

Gen. David Petraeus on Tuesday urged Congress to pass an Afghanistan war supplemental funding bill now under consideration.

"Enabling further such progress ... and successfully implementing the president's strategy will require that our work in Afghanistan is fully resourced," he told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "It is essential for the conduct of this mission ... that the supplemental funding measure now before Congress be passed. This committee and the Senate have passed it, and it was heartening to see Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi's call last week for the House to do the same expeditiously."

Gen. David Petraeus acknowledged Tuesday that "recent months in Afghanistan have seen tough fighting and tough casualties."

But "this was expected," he said. "The going inevitably gets tougher before it gets easier when a counterinsurgency operation tries to reverse insurgent momentum. My sense is that the tough fighting will continue. Indeed, it may get more intense in the next few months. As we take away the enemy's safe havens and reduce the enemy's freedom of action, the insurgents will fight back."

Gen. David Petraeus told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday that "the Taliban and its affiliates had, until this year, steadily been expanding the areas they control and influence."

"This year, however, (U.S.-led forces have) achieved progress in several locations," he said. "The initial main effort has been in the Central Helmand River Valley. And Afghan, U.S., and U.K. forces have expanded security there, though, predictably, the enemy has fought back as we have taken away (extremists') sanctuaries. ... Nothing has been easy in those operations."

Petraeus also highlighted the U.S. buildup in Kandahar Province, "an an area of considerable importance to the Taliban."

"We are working hard to ensure that our operations there are based on a strong, integrated civil-military and Afghan-international approach to security, governance, and development," he said.

Gen. David Petraeus offered praise Tuesday for Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who resigned as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan last week after he and his staff were quoted in a Rolling Stone magazine article criticizing and mocking key administration officials.

"Gen. McChrystal has devoted his entire professional life to the defense of this nation, and he and his family have made enormous personal sacrifices," Petraeus said. "I can attest, for example, that the success of the surge in Iraq would not have been possible without Gen. McChrystal's exceptional leadership of our special mission unit forces there.

"Most importantly, of course, he has made enormous contributions in leading the coalition endeavor in Afghanistan over the past year.

"We now see some areas of progress amidst the tough fight ongoing in Afghanistan," Petraeus said. "Considerable credit for that must go to Stan McChrystal."

Gen. David Petraeus said Tuesday that it "is important to note the president's reminder in recent days that July 2011 will mark the beginning of a process, not the date when the U.S. heads for the exits and turns out the lights."

"We'll need to provide assistance to Afghanistan for a long time to come," he said, quoting President Barack Obama.

"Moreover, as President (Hamid) Karzai has recognized, and as a number of allied leaders noted at the recent G-20 summit, it is going to be a number of years before Afghan forces can truly handle the security tasks in Afghanistan on their own.

"The commitment to Afghanistan is necessarily, therefore, an enduring one, and neither the Taliban nor our Afghan and Pakistani partners should doubt that."