In 2012, when Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta outlined a plan to withdraw U.S. combat troops by 2013 if possible, Romney criticized the announcement, saying, "Why in the world do you go to the people that you're fighting with and tell them the date you're pulling out your troops?" Romney's 2012 presidential election campaign website similarly criticized the Obama Administration for announcing a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, and reiterated his position that in a Romney presidency, decisions about when to withdraw troops would be made based on the advice of commanders in the field, not electoral politics.