but i also understand president karzai's frustration. he has a lot of pressures particularly pressures that come from fellow pashtuns. i think that he's reflecting that. i don't think it should be blown out of proportion. i'm absolutely confident that we can proceed forward and go to lisbon and come out of lisbon with a strong policy definition as we go forward in these next critical months. >> warner: general petraeus was quite upset. he conveyed that. in other words, they've been having private conversations. but for president karzai to go public like this and essentially say stop doing a cup couple of the major things you're doing, you have spent a lot of time with president karzai. you were instrumental in getting him to accept a run-off in the election, for instance. you spent hours with him. what do you think is going on with him? >> well, i think president karzai has a very good understanding of his own country. as i said, i think he's under lots of pressures. sometimes, you know, that emerges into a public comment. i think we now

karzai is the president of the country. if he makes a request, why isn't that good enough and why wouldn't there be a change of course? and just to -- on -- we're getting close to december. do you think the strategy, the search strategy is working? and do you think at this point you'll be able to make a substantial troop reduction in july? >> let me take the second question first. when i went through a rigorous and sometimes painful review process as you remember last december, our goal was to make sure that we had blunted the taliban. the whole point of ramping up our troop presence was not because we wanted to maintain a long-term large presence in afghanistan but to immediately blunt the momentum that we were seeing from the taliban and to create the space for the training of effective afghan security forces. and on both those front, i think the objective assessment is that we have made progress. you have fewer areas of afghanistan under taliban control. you have the taliban on the defensive in a number of areas that wer

. >> rose: and where is karzai now? >> he is difficult to -- i mean, pakistan is one sort of fundamental contradiction in the whole war. the other one is, the afghan government. and president karzai sits at the top of that. it is not -- it is not -- i don't think you can say whose side is he on, i don't think it is quite that far. but i think what is troubling, certainly troubling to me as an american, but i think it is definitely troubling to the american military, the diplomats there, they ask themselves increasingly, do we want this thing more than he does? you know. is this more important to us, to prevail here? than it is to him? and, you know, afghans will laugh, i mean they will tell you, you know, if the americans announce they are leaving on monday, president karzai will leave on sunday and be gone before the americans leave, you know, and so i think, you know, karzai is very difficult, you know, and he has s own reasons, of course, but and he is in a very difficult -- >> what is his game then? >> survival. >>

. >> rose: and where is karzai now? >> he is difficult to -- i mean, pakistan is one sort of fundamental contradiction in the whole war. the other one is, the afghan government. and president karzai sits at the top of that. it is not -- it is not -- i don't think you can say whose side is he on, i don't think it is quite that far. but i think what is troubling, certainly troubling to me as an american, but i think it is definitely troubling to the american military, the diplomats there, they ask themselves increasingly, do we want this thing more than he does? you know. is this more important to us, to prevail here? than it is to him? and, you know, afghans will laugh, i mean they will tell you, you know, if the americans announce they are leaving on monday, president karzai will leave on sunday and be gone before the americans leave, you know, and so i think, you know, karzai is very difficult, you know, and he has his own reasons, of course, but and he is in a very difficult -- >> what is his game then? >> survival. >

karzai is the president of the country. if he makes a request, why isn't that good enough and why wouldn't there be a change of course? and on just to -- on we're getting close to december, excuse me, do you think the strategy, the surge strategy is working and do you think at this point that you'll be able to make a substantial troop reduction in july? >> let me take the second question first. when i went through a rigorous and sometimes painful review process as you remember last december, our goal was to make sure that we had blunted the taliban. the whole point of ramping up our troop presence was not because we wanted to maintain a long-term presence in afghanistan, but it was to immediately blunt the momentum that we saw from the taliban and created a space for the training of effective afghan security forces. and on both those fronts, i think the objective assessment is that we have made progress. you have fewer areas for afghanistan until taliban control. you have the taliban on the defensive in a number of areas th

that's from hamid karzai. he went on to call for the u.s. military special ops raids, a key part of the counterinsurgency strategy. according to the post those remarks did not sit well with petraeus who warned officials that karzai's criticisms threatens to undermine progress in the war. comments drew fire from senator lindsay graham part of a congressional delegation that just got back from afghanistan. >> you know, i'm just stunned. we had a great meeting, we had dinner with senator mccain, lieberman and myself with president karzai. we talked about, quite frankly, looking long term with afghanistan about having to air bases and a permanent fashion in afghanistan to provide stability, so at the end of the day, there was no discussion about a difference between petraeus and karzai in terms of strategy. >> and graham, a member of the senate armed services committee, weighed in on reports of a new time frame for afghanistan saying 2014 was a more realistic date than the july 2011 deadline president obama had set for beginning a withdraw. >> i

. >>> on president karzai's concerns, we share the concerns. we discuss them on a number of occasions. but we believe that the operation operations are in the best interest of the afghan people. the afghan government. and the isef troops who are working with their afghan counterparts. to secure the country. >> some of the things we object to, are things which are being done at this time necessarily to support his government. >> secretary of state and envoy to pakistan talking about president karzai's comments this week, talking to the "washington post." he said this. "the time has come to reduce military operations." the time has come to reduce the presence of, you know, boots in afghanistan. to reduce the intrusiveness in the daily afghan life." he went on to say that the nighttime special operation raids were a problem and critical of the american operation overall which prompted concern from general david petraeus. >> back with the panel. how big a problem is this, bill? >> not a big problem. i e-mailed someone working with general petraeus.

book that how they thought karzai was unstable and perhaps still do. what about the caris caris storyline and how the u.s. prosecutes the war. >> now we know the president took the 2011 timeline is so he didn't "lose the democratic party." now he has the 2014. he says it's the real target. the administration says that's the real target. but that is designed to keep republicans on board. it means he's reliept on republican support to prosecute the war. question is as we have republicans who are less certain about prosecuting the war and less certain of prosecuting it with karzai if he is uncertain sentinel for liberty in afghanistan, then it's becoming a problem. as you point out, this is a serious problem because you start to lose political coalition behind the war. >> republicans right now, bill, seem like they are backing the president. how he is doing anything on afghanistan. >> the comments aren't helpful. we had an excellent ambassador to iraq jack crocker -- ryan crocker, sorry, who worked hand in hand with dave petraeus in 2007 and 2008. everyon

karzai is the president of the country. if he makes a request, why isn't that good enough and why wouldn't there be a change of course? and on just to -- on we're getting close to december, excuse me, do you think the strategy, the surge strategy is working and do you think at this point that you'll be able to make a substantial troop reduction in july? >> let me take the second question first. when i went through a rigorous and sometimes painful review process as you remember last december, our goal was to make sure that we had blunted the taliban. the whole point of ramping up our troop presence was not because we wanted to maintain a long-term presence in afghanistan, but it was to immediately blunt the momentum that we saw from the taliban and created a space for the training of effective afghan security forces. and on both those fronts, i think the objective assessment is that we have made progress. you have fewer areas for afghanistan until taliban control. you have the taliban on the defensive in a number of areas th

karzai is the president of the country. if he makes a request, why isn't that good enough and why wouldn't there be a change of course? on -- just to -- on -- we're getting close december, excuse me, do you think the strategy the search strategy is working? do you think at this point you will be able to make a substantial troop reduction in july? >> the president: let me take the second question first. when i went through a rigorous and sometime painful review process, as you remember, last december, our goal was to make sure we had blunted the taliban. the whole point of ramping up our troop presence was not because we wanted to maintain a long term, large presence in afghanistan. it was to immediately blunt the momentum that we were seeing from the taliban. and create the space for the training of effective afghan security forces. on both those fronts, i think the objective assessment is we have made progress. you have fewer areas of afghan under taliban control. you have the taliban on the defensive in a number of areas

karzai's comments have angered the top american commanderer in afghanistan. general david petraeus and stunned other senior u.s. officials. >> some things he objected to are done at this time necessarily to support his government. >> the raids are deeply unpopular in afghanistan, but militarily effective. >> we believe that the u.s. of intelligence-driven precision targeted operations against high value insurgents and their network is a key component of our comprehensive

president karzai as the u.s. forces to lighten up their troop presence, especially with night raids and bombing. "our country must be tired of this war. we can hardly get a barstool general to tell them how to kill them all. that will fix it." president obama is returning from japan today. another foreign trip next week. the headline there is that nato is beginning to withdraw some troops but maintaining a presence in afghanistan through at least 2014. damon joining us from minnesota on the republican line. good morning. welcome to "washington journal". caller: i have one question, do you believe any of the war propaganda that you read on air? host: how about answering your own question? caller: i don't, given the record of not telling the truth. the question is, do you believe any of it? host: thanks for the call. we will go to james, independent line, washington, d.c. caller: i am calling to follow up on a couple of people discussed the opium crop in how we cannot seem to stem the flow of opium to the world mar

where is karzai's head on this? >> i'm not sure i know where karzai's head is, but i do think we have to recognize he is in a difficult position. by the way, i'm not totally sympathetic but i am a little bit sympathetic. he's the head of a country that is an occupied country with war where there are civilian casualties and he's a politician. and so as a politician he is reacting to this but do i think he wants the united states to pull out of afghanistan, no. does he have to say things which look like he's unhappy about some of the things we're doing, yes. >> so i want to put up this latest commercial about don't ask, don't tell. i want to show you what cindy mccain has been saying, talking about war policy in the military >> lgbt teens are six to nine times more likely to attempt suicide than their straight peers. >> our political and religious leaders tell lgbt youth that they have no future. >> they can't get married. >> they can't serve our country openly. >> what's worse, these laws that legislate discriminatio

karzai is the president of the country. if he makes a request, why is that not good enough and why would there not be a change of course? we are getting close to december. do you think the surge strategy is working, and do you think at this point that you will be able to make a substantial troop reduction by july? >> let me take your second question first. when i go through a rigorous and painful -- when i went through a rigorous and painful review process last december, our goal was to make sure that we had blunted the taliban by ramping up our troop presence. it was not because we wanted to have a long-term presence in afghanistan. we wanted to immediately blunt the presence we were seeing from the taliban. we wanted to create a space-bar training effect of afghan security forces. on the both of those -- we wanted to create a space for training effective afghan security forces. on both of those fronts, we have met or exceeded our targets. our assessments are that the performance of afghan security forces has improved sign

jon: after kwan president hamid karzai calling on the u.s. to reduce military operations and end raids on taliban leaders. it is causing a whole new rift with america's top commander there, general david petraeus. conor powell is is live in kabul with more for us. connor? this. >> reporter: well, jon, president karzai has had similar outbursts in the past, but this is being viewed as a very serious outburst. over the weekend president karzai said that he wants to see u.s. troops begin to wind down the military operations here in afghanistan. he also said he wants to see night raids ended, and he also said he wants to see u.s. troops have a less visible presence here in afghanistan. now, today afghan president karzai's spokesman tried to down play the comments, but i'm told that president karzai's comments have really angered and frustrated general petraeus. there is a view here that president karzai's comments are a direct shot, it's a direct criticism of the petraeus strategy here in afghanistan which really puts a focus on protecting the af

where is karzai's head on this? >> i'm not sure i know where karzai's head is but i do think we have to recognize he is in a difficult position. i'm not totally sympathetic but a little bit. he's the head of a country occupied country with war where there are civilian casualties and he's a politician. does i think he wants the united states foe pull out, no. does he have to say things which look like he's unhappy about some of the things we're doing, yes. >> i want to put up this latest commercial about don't ask, don't tell. i want to show you what cindy mccain has been talking about war policy in the military. >> lgbt teens are six to nine times more likely to attempt suicide than their trait peers. >> our political and religious leaders tell lgbt youth that they have no future. >> they can't get married. >> they can't serve our country openly. >> what's worse, these laws that legislate discrimination teach -- >> bullies what they are adoing is acceptable. >> our government treats them like second class citizens.

but that will not be soon enough for afghan's president hamid karzai. this weekend in an unusual call to "the washington post" he criticized the u.s. military operation, and in that call to "the washington post," he infuriated general david petraeus. according to all reports. today secretary of state hillary clinton is defending u.s. operations in afghanistan. senator joe lieberman is senior member of the armed services committee, and just returned from the war zones in iraq and afghanistan. senator, thank you very much. first let's go to this dispute. hamid karzai calls "the washington post" saying he wants the footprint of u.s. troops reduced almost immediately. general pap tray is clearly concerned in sunday meetings saying that -- that that would not make -- make his work even possible. he expressed "astonishment and disappointment" that karzai's position made his own untenable. what is your reaction to this? what do we do with hamid karzai? >> well i share general petraeus' surprise and disappointment. i mean, this strategy we're following is one t

president, to president karzai, i have other things to worry about than what you say. >> i think that was a very calculated decision and it is a response, i think, to a series of feelers and signals that karzai is sending out. the most prominent of which was an interview with a pakistani journalist which rasheed wrote up in the "financial times" in which karzai has been bitterly complaining about nato, about the united states, saying in this article, rasheed says he has essentially he, karzai, has essentially become anti-western, and anti-american. remember sort of a hand-picked choice of the about bush administration to lead afghanistan after we overthrew the taliban. karzai has been lashing out, perhaps for domestic political reasons, perhaps out of genuine frustration, but the obama administration seems to be telling him, privately and publicly, look, there is a limit to which you can do this kind of thing and continue to enjoy our moral and political support. the 150,000 troops from the west that are sitting in your country, as president obama says, trying to do your work for you,

says the troop surge has worked so why is karzai asking the u.s. to back off? >> lester, president karzai is loud and clear to both parties as well as the taliban leaders here in afghanistan and pakistan that he is ready to negotiate, but he wants the taliban to reintegrate back into the government as well as the society here in afghanistan. by using "the washington post" it's a megaphone for his message to d.c. politicians and it's a prominent enough newspaper for that message to make it bab to the tribal regions in afghanistan and pakistan. so the taliban leaders know he's serious as well. he has admitted to speaking to two level taliban commanders, one from the network that is notorious for killing both nato soldiers and afghan civilians. many of these taliban leaders including those within the network say they will not negotiate with the afghan government until nato forces leave. so he's bringing this message out. he wants the taliban to know that he's serious, because in the last nine years president karzai's mindset is to work with the international commu

karzai is the president of the country. if he makes a request, why is that not good enough and why would there not be a change of course? we are getting close to december. do you think the surge strategy thinkking, candidand do you at this point that you will be able to make a substantial troop reduction by july? >> let me take your second question first. when i go through a rigorous and painful -- when i went through a rigorous and painful review process last december, our goal was to make sure that we had blunted the taliban by ramping up our troop presence. it was not because we wanted to have a long-term presence in afghanistan. we wanted to immediately blunt the presence we were seeing from the taliban. we wanted to create a space-bar training effect of afghan security forces. on the both of those -- we wanted to create a space for training effective afghan security forces. on both of those fronts, we have met or exceeded our targets. our assessments are that the performance of afghan security forces has improved signi

says the troop surge has worked so why is karzai asking the u.s. to back off? >> lester, president karzai is loud and cle to both parties as well as the taliban leaders here in afghanistan and pakistan that he is ready to negoate, but he wants the taliban to reintegrate back into the government as well as the society here in afghanistan. by using "the washinon post" it's a megaphone for his message to d.c. politicians and it's a prominent enough newspaper for that message to make itab to the tribal regions in ghanistan and pakistan. so the taliban leaders know he's serious as well. he has admitted to speaking to two level taliban commanders, one from the network that is notorious for killing both nato soldiers and afghan vilians. many of these taliban leaders including those within the network say they will not negotiate with the afghan government until nato forces leave. so he's bringing this message out. he wants the taliban to know that he's serious, because in the last nine years president karzai's mindset is to work with the international community and the

karzai right now is a questionable asset. and i think to some extent, by the way, he's eroding political support for u.s. support here in the united states. >> when it comes to military strategy, though, general, is it bad to set timelines? is this the kind of thing that gives those opponents of the united states and nato troops just the chance to say, we are just going to wait this out. we have a date, we are waiting. >> of course. you talk to a domestic political audience in your nato allies in lisbon, at the same time you are talking to the taliban and saying, here's the end game the americans are announcing. and you are also telling karzai and his security forces, look, these guys are going to pull out. you better start making accommodations to survive when they are gone. on the oh hand, it is a political reality. i would personally endorse what the president has done in this case. i don't think he had much choices. and he couldn't leave next summer as the implied beginning of u.s. withdrawal. >> okay, general barry mccaf

in a "washington post"interview this weekend, karzai said he wanted the u.s. to reduce military operations, and end special operations raises. however, those raids are a key part of the u.s. counterinsurgency strategy. according to "the post," general david praeus expressed, quote, astoshment and disappointment with karzai's remarks. meanwhile, according to this morni morning's "new york times" the obama administration will be laying out a plan that ai to end the mission in afghanistan by 2014. the u.s. would start handing over security duties tofghan forces over the next 18 to 24 months. >>> president obama is praising israeli prime mister benjam netanyahu for trying to win approval fromis cabinet of a new proposal to freeze construction in the disputed west bank. the plan would see israel enforce a construction ban for 90 days, in exchange, washington would give israel military aid and support at the united nations. if approved by the israeli government, the deal could help revive peace talks with the palestinians, which collapsed at the end of september. >>

. >> reporter: president obama also sat down with afghan president hamid karzai for the first38& karzai has demanded lower visibility and a much earlier departure date for u.s. troops, but today's meeting was cordial with karzai complimenting the president on the tone of his remarks. >> once in a while i do things right. >> reporter: a fresh start with russia. the secretary general saying that nato and russia -- >> could conceivably, even, cooperate eventually in shooting down an >> reporter: russia's president medvedev joined nato allies in urging the senate to ratify the new start treaty reducing nuclear weapons. he suggested that delay could threaten u.s. relations with russia. president obama also noted russian help with sanctions on iran, and he warned that u.s.-russia relations could slip back into an atmosphere of mistrust if the start treaty is not ratified before the end of the year. he insisted that all the questions about the treaty which republicans have raised have been answered. >> there is no other reason not to do it than the fact that -- you know, washington has become

i think what you will hear from general petraeus, president obama, president karzai and all of us is that we now have all of the components of the strategy that president obama directed a year ago. and we believe it is working and not only do we in the american government believe it is working what was particularly reassuring is that the expressions of support that came from the nato isap partner countries also recognized that we are making progress on the ground. now, when you are engaged in both trying to kill and capture the enemy and get support from the local population you have to be always asking yourself is what i'm doing keeping that balance. general petraeus understands that probably better than any one. in my conversation with president karzai and the meeting that i just came from that president obama had with president karzai, we were very clear in saying we have to continue to do what is working but we cannot do it to the extent that it turns people against the very strategy that is working. and it is a constant -- this is a constant evaluation and i think it shows the l

i don't fault president karzai for raising those issues. on the other hand, now, he's got to understand that i've got a bunch of young men and women from, you know, small downs and make cities all across america who are in a foreign country being shot at, and having to traverse terrain filled with ieds, and they need to protect themselves. so if we're setting things up where they're just sitting ducks for the taliban, that's not an acceptable answer either. >> reporter: no doubt that civilian casualties in afghanistan are soaring. through the first six months this year, 55% more children have been killed, but if you look at numbers and how these victims were killed, independent united nations analysis shows insurgents were responsible for about 75% of those civilian deaths. i sef responsible for about 25%. >> chris lawrence in lisbon. thanks so much for that update. >>> meantime, it's time for everyone to think about their investment plans for the next. one expert thinks it's time to get back into stocks, and she'll explain why. ♪ [ male

i think what you will hear from general petraeus, president obama, president karzai and all of us is that we now have all of the components of the strategy that president obama directed a year ago. and we believe it is working and not only do we in the american government believe it is working what was particularly reassuring is that the expressions of support that came from the nato isap partner countries also recognized that we are making progress on the ground. now, when you aren gaged in both trying to kill and capture the enemy and get support from the local population you have to be always asking yourself is what i'm doing keeping that balance. general petraeus understands that probably better than any one. in my conversation with president karzai and the meeting that i just came from that president obama had with president karzai, we were very clear in saying we have to continue to do what is working but we cannot do it to the extent that it turns people against the very strategy that is working. and it is a constant -- this is a constant evaluation and i think it shows the le

general petraeus has continuous meings with president karzai. i uld describe it a cooperative relationship, yet a firm relationship they have with each other. they speak very frankly with each other. number one, the president is well informed as to what is taking place. i think the ambassador put his finger on it. i would just express it a little differently. president karzai has been in power for nine years. he is on his sixth petraeus. he is seen expectations before. he is seen expectations not met before. he also has people to answer to. i think a lot of that was posturing for attention before the lisbon talks. he reminded everybody that he was head of the sovereign state and he had some issues inside of that. to look get that as a major divider from wha general petraeus is trying to accomplish, what nato is trying to accomplish, there is a major chasm there and we are going in different directions as a matter of policy would be wrong. matter-of-fact, they are on the same page again. that is the reality of it. it happened. it is unfortunate.

i think what you will hear from general petraeus, president obama, president karzai, and all of us, is that we now have all of the components of the strategy that president obama directed a year ago. and we believe it is working and not only do we, in the american government believe it is working, what was particularly reassuring is that the expressions of support that came from the nato partner countries also recognized that we are making progress on the ground. now, when you are engaged in both trying to kill and capture the enemy and get support from the local population you always have to ask yourself, is what i'm doing keeping the balance? general petraeus understands that, probably better than anyone, in my conversation with president karzai in the meeting i came from that president obama had with president karzai, we were very clear in saying we have to continue to do what is working but not to the extent it turns people against the strategy that is work. and this is a -- >> if i may -- >> this is a constant evaluation and it shows the level of dialogue going on between us. >> c

and that's not good for president karzai. he already has a very strained relationship when it comes to the obama administeratioadminis. president obama himself. as well as the u.s. special envoy to pakistan and afghanista afghanistan. >> thank you. >>> and up next, we'll talk with a man who sporked a 30-minute standoff with the tsa after refusing to go through one of those, you know, full body screening procedures. >>> plus -- >> it's just none of his flipping business. >> who was she talking about? sarah palin's reality tv debut. will her new show help or hurt her political future? >> it means a lot to me. it was really nice that all these people are supporting me. >> a major show of support for a little boy told he could not fly his american flag on his bike that he rides to school. "news nation" is back after this. as a manager, my team counts on me to stay focused. so i take one a day men's 50+ advantage. it's the only complete multivitamin with ginkgo to support memory and concentration. plus vitamin d to help maintain h

of the brits brought the man claiming to be more muhammad months or a senior taliban leader to meet karzai last summer but then while they realize that he was he claimed to be afghan investigators said it was later determined that the visitor was actually a shop keeper in this episode is embarrassed afghan and western officials and rightly so the move also undercuts the notion circulated earlier this year by senior u.s. officials that there was some momentum towards possible peace talks now the brits have their embassy in kabul are not commenting but u.s. officials have also said that the fake taliban leader was primarily a british project and that the brits have been much more aggressive than the u.s. and pushing for a political settlement to end the war if you remember afghan and nato officials held three meetings with the man for whom they secured roadways flew to kabul on nato aircraft ushered into the presidential palace and whom they also courting to officials gave a lot of money to so hate when all else fails just blame it on the brits right why not since the u.s. and afghans will n

military and afghan president hal id karzai? have you heard about this, karzai criticizing the way the war is fought in his country. what the top commander in afghanistan had to say about that. >>> and this lovely lady in the black hat on your screen could one day be queen of england. who is kate middleton and what can we expect when she and prince willan tie the knot? we are waiting for pictures of the prince and his future bride. that's coming up. who's your someone? campbell's healthy request can help. low cholesterol, zero grams trans fat, and a healthy level of sodium. it's amazing what soup can do. or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. [ technician ] are you busy? management just sent over these new technical manuals. they need you to translate them into portuguese. by tomorrow. [ male announcer ] ducati knows it's better for xerox to manage their global publications. so they can focus on building a

karzai, secretary-general rasmussen, i'm on this side. you have mentied, second general, that in october next year, there might be 300,000 security forces that are positive to the situation. what has changed that you are so positive that nato can hand over the responsibility in 2014? what are the positive results at the moment that you can mention that led to this decision you just announc? do you have military offensive in the south at the moment? will all the militaroffenses be completed until 2014? >> as i mentioned, i base my optimism on the fact that we have seen a very encouraging development on the capacity within the afghan security forces. actually we are ahead of schedule in the buildup of the afghan security forces. and also as regards quality, we see strong improvements. so this is the first reason. secondly, we have sent in more international troops and we also see the positive impact alady now. we see more fighting, actually, in the south of afghanistan in helmond and kandahar. we are attacking the taliban strong holds and w

you worked with president karzai. we now hear that president karzai, we hear that he is corrupt, that he has emotional problems. what is the president karzai? is he someone you do business with or satisfied working with him? >> i was satisfied working with. i found him to be courageous. i had his best interest at heart. i don't know about the corruption wraps on president karzai. i have didn't see that when i was president. he is take on a tough assignment. he helped the country develop monitor constitution. dually elected by the people of afghanistan. any democracy that is broke will have problems. afghanistan is broke. his task is difficult. i do put in the book, there was too much corruption. i didn't allege that karzai was corrupt. i never saw that evidence. i had a good relationship with him. my job was to help him better understand america's willingness to support and that we expected him to help the government reach out and provide security. reach out to people in the provinces. >> after afghanistan, of course,

last week president karzai made the statement regarding u.s. and allied raids in the country. he said afghanistan is better off without this operation and afghanistans should do it. why is he making this case now when we have the taliban on the run? >> i think he makes a different case to different audiences without perhaps seeing that it's now a seamless hole and what you say to people inside afghanistan is also being heard by people heard outside of afghanistan and particularly by the allied commanders. my sense is the greater the involvement in decision-making, the better the end result. and perhaps the model used by general mcchrystal seemed to have been working extremely well, which was regardless of the big or the small question, he would always keep president karzai informed. so that it appeared as if he was making the decisions. >> right. >> and maybe general petraeus needs to set up that kind of relationship with him. >> the administration now is relooking at the afghanistan war strategy. that process is under way. but last week admiral mullen said we are rather to se