I thank General McChrystal for his service to NATO, and for the enormous effort he has put into leading the ISAF mission.

While he will no longer be the commander, the approach he helped put in place is the right one.  The strategy continues to have NATO’s support, and our forces will continue to carry it out.

Our operations in Afghanistan are continuing today, and they will not miss a beat. We have a strong military team in Afghanistan. My Senior Civilian Representative, Mark Sedwill will continue to direct our effort on the political side.  And soon, a new Commander of ISAF will take up his position.

The Afghan people should have no doubt that we will continue to carry out our mission in partnership with them. We will continue working to protect the Afghan population and to build the Afghan security forces, and we will stay for as long as it takes to do our job.