you don't have that in afghanistan. a lot of these people that come in and want to be soldiers or policemen can only be veted by the elders in the village. so you don't know who you are. what we tried to do was bring in bio metrics and you'll probably read about that now, how do we reset and establish a good background way to determine who should be armed and who should be in uniform over there and who shouldn't be and that's some of the things we were doing. corruption is very real. but it's acceptable. we don't like it but in afghanistan, people accept corruption as a way of life. so another challenge was how do we change the mind set, how did we make people realize it's not right to do the kind of things they were doing which was grafting, taking money and being a corrupt society, taking money from people just to move throughout their town. one of the ways we did that was trying to be sure we took people and spent time with the police officers themselves. we probably spent way too much -- too much emphasis on contrac

in afghanistan, the police are not so concerned with traffic control, traffic is insane in afghanistan. so you'll see traffic lights but they don't work. they are not so concerned with chasing criminals. what they are concerned with is protecting themselves and protecting the villagers. in a lot of places throughout afghanistan, the police might be the only thing that's separating the villagers from the taliban. they are what would be more considered a paramilitary source. -- force. ufrptly prrp unfortunately they are not trained nearly as well as the taliban, they don't have the same equipment and they are greatly outnumbered by the enemy moving freely through afghanistan. so the focus of effort needed to be switched to say how do we fix that because the populations are concentrated in the districts and we needed to look at how we would fix the police in the districts, how we would train these folks and figure out who's, who should be in there and who shouldn't be. when i was in kabul, i worked very closely with the chief of police up there and with all the different sections of the p

afghanistan -- future about afghanistan and less about the future of afghanistan being defined by ennissty or tribal orientation. to that extent, i did spend time with the schools. one of the schools in particular i spent a lot of time with in kabul and it was a school that -- where the youngsters almost were a person. we sponsored them with scholarships, almost to a person, these youngsters saw their future in afghanistan tied to their own professions, whether it be doctor, she wanted to be a doctor. he wanted to be a lawyer. she wanted to be an engineer. whatever it might be, they saw their future as tied to afghanistan and not to a job and not to necessarily their tribe or their ethnicity. i think we have come from the middle of 2011 to where we are today in so many ways the development of ansf and ability to operate in the field and much work remains to be done, this has been a real benefit to afghanistan as a state and afghanistan as a people in the 19 to 20 months that i was there. i have to emphasize it was the result of the hard work of my predecessors as well. >> thank you. of cou

from afghanistan and the people of afghanistan has a strong doubt about the cup ability of afghan forces. security forces to take control of the country and the end of the common man amounts of course the afghan security forces well take full control of security fears over the over the country and because of this the people of afghanistan have a strong about the ability because of this the people of afghanistan has a strong concern that situation will go well will be wars particularly after. two thousand and fourteen when they're all foreign troops leave the country. at the moment the u.s. seems to be somewhat tiny trying to negotiate with the taliban but it's also targeting insurgents so what exactly is their tactic right now. i think the taliban once again. through this said that claire a message to the major said center to international community and to the government of afghanistan they are not ready to participate in any negotiation with the government of afghanistan and they will not participate and peace process which has been conducted by the government of afghanistan and they wi

inis carried out afghanistan. the concept of giving the be literatecity to and capitalize on the program trading environment which the soldiers and police entering the service -- to give them some capacity initially to read and write and to make their numbers at first grade level -- havey over half of the asnf the capacity to read in the first grade level. to continue to emphasize the continued learning of the afghan soldiers and police threw up a period of time of their enlistment. this becomes not just an initiative which is useful for military and police operations, it is an initiative that has the potential to change society in many suspects -- in many respects. this has the potential for some pretty dramatic change. >> across the country i think there were other important outcomes of where we found the asnf in 2011 to where we are today. the securing of large segments of the population -- you wrote about it with michelle in a very good piece with respect to what you discovered. i travel inis when my battlefie

eastern afghanistan is one of the most dangerous parts of afghanistan. of the seven medals of honor that been awarded to troops who served in afghanistan, either the seven were awarded to troops serving in either kunar or another province, the two provinces but it's an unbelievably dangerous place. of the seven, i should point out that three of them were awarded posthumously. so ross convinced me that i need to tell more stories than just the stories from 2009, that there were other stories that needed to be told. and he told me about lieutenant colonel joe fenty, and he told me about the okuma national guardsmen, buddy hughie, whom i told you about not long ago, told me the shared, one of the medal of honor winners as it is referred to the was a posthumous medal of honor award he. recipient. so ross convinced me but then i started hearing from this other guy, lieutenant dave roller who was with the squadron that took over from ross' kid. data from 191 camp. they took over in 2007. dave roller wanted me to know about the guys that didn't make it back fro

what should the tom b in afghanistan? caller: i think we should be out of afghanistan. it has been 10-12 years we have been fighting. we have had plenty of time to reflect on 9/11 and what happened. that is the reason we went to afghanistan. since we know what we know now about 9/11, we should never have went into afghanistan or iraq. to suggest otherwise, to me, is complete denial of what actually happened on that day. until we address that issue, we are just slaughtering people in afghanistan and iraq, and it makes no sense. we have no goal. we have achieved nothing. we will achieve nothing. guest: to take a look at some of the reporting, here is a front- page headline on wall street journal -- host: here is more of what president karzai said -- let's take a listen to what the defense secretary had to say in a press conference addressing the comments. [video clip] >> we did discuss those comments. i told president it was not true that the united states was unilaterally working with the taliban in trying to negotiate anything. the fact is any prospect for peace or poli

in pakistan or afghanistan. all of the attacks on al qaeda in pakistan a today are conducted from afghanistan. so we have an interest in retaining some role. we see a very modest, small role for the united states. karzai, i think, has an exaggerated sense of how important this is and how large a role we have. but there's a kernel of truth there. >> woodruff: and how do you see what he's doing? why do you believe he's making these... >> there are two very significant transitions coming up more or less in parallel. one is the fact that the u.s. is drawing down from a major role to a very minor role and our influence will diminish as the result. the second is afghanistan is going through or toward what may be the first peaceful transition of power in its entire national history. this is unprecedented. afghans have never experienced a peaceful transition from one leader to another. and karzai as the ambassador indicated wants to play a role, wants to remain relevant, probably wants to have a role in picking his succ

in some parts of afghanistan, we are there today. the police need to be able to transition smoothly from the trailing edge of the counterinsurgency to the leading edge of law enforcement. contributions by countries like japan and korea to the development of police and police capacity is helping us to make that a critical transition from counterinsurgency to law enforcement in larger and larger portions of afghanistan. we would not be where we are today in the campaign without the sacrifices of these many countries that have come together, historic, a common vision on this outcome. where it -- when you think about where afghanistan is in the state of the economy, when you think about other countries the past, very few have had 70 countries come together, 52 pledge the blood of their precious children, others to put their economies and political viability of a line on behalf of afghanistan, and not just do it for a short time but to do it over a decade and to sign up for a decade of transformation, many of the countries, japan and kore

as many people in afghanistan believe that if the united states leave afghanistan in this situation. here is a free government in india is a poor and weak security forces and the air is for it interference in afghanistan and this situation if the united states leave afghanistan it will pay more. more in the future and it would be extremely costly for a far for the united states interest in the future because the taliban the taliban is gaining ground in the taliban is growing and insurgency in many parts of the country is growing at the same time the support of. foreign countries and regional countries still is of the way to the taliban because of this it is absolutely a complicated situation and i believe it is very difficult for the you made to sit to leave this country in this situation in good back and well here more and more then he paid in one thousand nine hundred ninety s. when for a lot also when i saw now when you say you left. to asian american troops getting their final steps of withdrawal by the end of twenty fourteen as you say a very fragile future ahead for afghanistan

it's a very interesting situation it's not afghanistan is not the afghanistan of the one thousand nine hundred ninety one nine hundred ninety s. and a lot has changed but at the same time we lost some opportunities the world also. plundered their chances and we also did the same so the people are a confused people are not fully supporting the taliban's all of that agenda is that they were. proposing earlier but it is up to the taliban to show their real face not the face that is pushed by the british intelligence or the pakistani intelligence because this last move from a stumble in this fellow announced. a fellow by the name of michael sample of the british fellows also. in that so this is a bit confusing for the people of afghanistan but i hope that they will do so there through phases to agenda and interesting that you say true face what is the taliban's true face at this point because it has just been kind of a shadowy presence in the country this insurgency and they've been used to running an insurgency but actually having people to put forward faces to show people and actually ta

i have been to afghanistan and iraq. i was shocked and in the bill -- an individual was concerned about the amount of food that they would drink in the afternoon because they found it dangerous to go to the latrine at night. to be concerned about their safety, it makes you wonder that we have to do something about it. what is the current state of the problem? what is being done to address the issue of sexual assault while on the deployment? >> i don't believe the drawdown will present unique challenges. the environment in the unit is the environment. it comes down to the alertness of the chain of command and to the command climate and the commanders intend and her ability to articulate what is acceptable behavior and the authority of commanders to deal with unacceptable behavior things to the ucmj is more than sufficient to maintain the discipline. we take this seriously. we took it seriously ill long time ago -- we took it seriously a long time ago. some of the act will work we get a we take that for action. we have the

would afghanistan have been different? >> yes. >> so what was his magic plan that would have made him different if he had the resources, i'm suggesting, and moremportantly the coiden of thpridt. >> if he had the confidence of the president and the resources, he still wouldn't have had a magic plan. and he had no delusions about that. what he wanted to do -- >> there was no plan to be head had. >> was to begin the process of reducing our commitment there because we didn't have vital interests that justified that. so he was looking for various avenues to extricate ourselve. >> but he was-- yes. but also holbrook was trying to make a deal with the taliban. >> right. >> even though he knew was unlikely he could do it. he didn'thave any illusions about that. there had been things written that he thought copull this off. but he was also quite pessimistic about it. in the end i think he felt that if there was going to be a deal, some afghan government would work it out with some taliban operation, not us. >> which is what is goin

in pakistan or afghanistan. all of the attacks on al qaeda in pakistan a today are conducted from afghanistan. so we have an interest in retaining some role. we see a very modest, small role for the united states. karzai, i think, hasan exaggerated sense of how important this is and how large a role we have. but there's a kernel of truth there. >> woodruff: and how do you see what he's doing? why do you believe he's making these... >> there are two very significant transitions coming up more or less in parallel. one is the fact that the u.s. is drawing down from a major role to a very minor role and our influence will diminish as the result. the second is afghanistan is going through or toward what may be theirst peacefultransition of power in its entire national history. this is unprecedented. afghans have never experienced a peaceful transition from one leader to another. and karzai as the ambassador indicated wants to play a role, wants to remain relevant, probably wants to have a role in picking his successo

on afghanistan, followed by social security. panels from the tucson festival of books, live this weekend on c-span two. >> now, the commanders of u.s. social operations on defense funding for military programs in 2014. general james madison testified about troop levels in afghanistan. the threat of a nuclear iran. from the senate of armed services committee, this is about three hours. >> good morning, everybody. this morning's hearing is the first of the commanders to receive testimony on the military strategy and operational requirements in areas of responsibility. our witnesses are two extraordinary military leaders, commander of u.s. central command, and commander of u.s. special operations command. on behalf of our members, please pass along to the men and women serving our sincere gratitude for their dedication and their sacrifices. we also thank their families. their support is essential to the well-being of their loved ones and our nation. this is your third and last hearing before this committee. this committee has favor

would afghanistan have been different? >> yes. >> so what was his magic plan that would have made him different if he had the resources, i'm suggesting, and more importantly the confidence of the president. >> if he had the confidence of the president and the resources, he still wouldn't have had a magic plan. and he had no delusions about that. what he wanted to do -- >> there was no plan to be head had. >> was to begin the process of reducing our commitment there because we didn't have vital interests that justified that. so he was looking for various avenues to extricate ourselve. >> but he was-- yes. but also holbrook was trying to make a deal with the taliban. >> right. >> even though he knew was unlikely he could do it. he didn't have any illusions about that. there had been things written that he thought copull this off. but he was also quite pessimistic about it. in the end i think he felt that if there was going to be a deal, some afghan government would work it out with some taliban operation, not us. >> which is

afghan president karzai says they're conspiring to stay in afghanistan to stay in afghanistan. he should be so lucky. somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them, right? vo: the war room monday to thursday at 6 eastern ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] the next wave of italians has come to america, and the fiat 500 with beats audio is rockin' the block. the italian designed fiat 500. >> john: time for our thing of the day, and tonight it's our poetic justice of the day. it only took a hundred years or so, but the plantation where harriet tubman worked as a slave is now becoming a state park. the harriet tubman underground railroad state park and visitor center. broke ground saturday in cambridge, married. as for the slave owner who own the land where the park is going up he's best forgotten. >> afghan president karzai canceled a president conference and blasts the united states policies saying the united states was working with the taliban to stabilize the country to have a presence longer than the agreed upo

my message to the afghans is that we will want you we choose a stroll safe stable democratic afghanistan living in peace and stability with its neighbors we will that country to be run by the afghans for the afghans with an afghan army and police schools to provide that security and that stability. it may not however take the form that either cameron or many others would have wanted or hoped the taliban in ticket may form a political party in contest the upcoming presidential vote by all accounts it does have a solid chance at the ballot this map shows you the regions that either pose for a taliban comeback or have areas already under taliban control seventeen of them in all according to data from the carnegie endowment now earlier i spoke with a former afghan m.p. and political analyst daoud sultanzoy who says that the taliban a must involve if it wants to secure its chances in the country's future. they have to come in spell out their agenda and their their ideology so far has been the old system they want a model out of afghanistan not republic of afghanistan and so far they have not

let's talk about security in afghanistan. something we don't talk about enough in american media in terms of confidence and building confidence that when we pull out of the country, when forces are drawn down, it's going to be any, it's going to be in any way stable. let alone better off. i think the activities and the action and the violence we've seen in the last weekend are real cause for concern here. >> well, yes. afghanistan is still a war zone. it's still a violent place and it will be for some time. we have a plan in place to transition to full afghan security lead by the end of 2014 and they're executing on that. to get us there we built up an afghan force of 352,000 troops that will take ownership for their own security and we're moving through a set of issues to begin the transition. now you know, violence will occur, these horrible glean on blue incidents are going to continue to occur. as a nation we need to know that and be ready for it. >> ha do you make of karzai coming out and saying that the u.s. is colludin

three efforts in afghanistan. first of all, the military surge and that was going non-february of 2011. you'll recall she said that it needed to be supported, needed to be continued and this the great sacrifice that not just american but allied partner and friends military forces were making were crucial to the possibility of coming to some peaceful conclusion in afghanistan. she also i think very importantly reminded her audience of what she called the civilian surge that was then under way in afghanistan. the effort by the then 1200, from 200 americans people the national community and afghans as well working on development and governance and future structures along with the after gans. i think it's worth stopping for a moment here in march of 2013 and allow me to say that i think that civilian surge had at the some important positive developments and i'll give you some, i believe, positive developments from today. allow me a couple of examples if you would. 2002, 900,000 afghan children were in school all boys.

and in eastern afghanistan. the same, i think, was true in the period after the very destructive civil war for a costly war from 2006 to 2008. iraqis came together, began to force these sorts of accommodations at the local level and what we hope to see is more of those accommodations at the national level. and we talked, obviously, in the first panel more about why that hasn't occurred. >> okay. this gentleman right here, and we'll try to take a group right here. >> thank you, ma'am. i'm -- [inaudible] with phoenix tv. the this question is to mr. brzezinski. since the president right now is taking his very first foreign trip in his second term to the middle easts, how do you see his middle east policy, and can he really achieve something in his second term? thank you. >> i, um, we're going to take a couple of questions. i, um, i'm hoping -- i don't want to rule things out, but i'm hoping to keep the focus on the big question we have before us which is the lessons of a decade of war. right here. >> jeffrey -- [in

a stroll safe stable democratic afghanistan living in peace and stability with its neighbors we will that country to be run by the full the afghans with an afghan army and police force to provide that security and that stability. it may not though take the form that either cameron or many others would have hoped or expected the taliban entering it may form political party and contest the upcoming presidential vote and by all accounts it does have a solid chance at the ballot this map shows the regions that are either poised for a taliban comeback or have areas already under taliban control seventeen in all according to data from the carnegie endowment earlier i spoke with a former afghan m.p. and political analyst daoud sultanzoy who says the taliban must evolve if it wants to secure its chances in the country's future they have to common spell out their agenda and their their ideology so far has been the old system they want em out of afghanistan not republic of afghanistan and so far they have not changed that tone and unless they change that the people of afghanistan will not be s

of afghanistan. karzai is mystery that we've had to deal with for a long time and we'll have to continue to deal with. however, complex his motivations, the effects are the same. karzai's remarks endanger u.s. and coalition troops by encouraging the taliban to take advantage of the apparent disarray they might see among those fighting against them. karzai's absurd remarks, weaken the support of the american people to pursue a strategy based on a carefully planned transfer of responsibility to afghan security forces and they raise doubts in many, if not most american minds about the wisdom of a long-term, strategic relationship with afghanistan with all of its costs and its risks. should these challenges including karzai's inflammatory rhetoric cause us to change course? now i was disappointed when president obama, instead of deciding to reduce troops during 2013, at a quote steady pace, as he said he would, and as i had urged him to do, the president effectively decided against further troop reductio

was colluding with taliban on attacks in afghanistan. at least one democratic senator put out a statement today. joe manchin saying this. "it is beyond disgusting that president karzai would make such an outrageous and dishonest claim while the military is serving and dieing in the country to give people in afghanistan a better future. he should spend more time address to be widespread corruption in the re sheem rather than make false claims against americans fighting for the people. the despicable comments confirm it's time to bring the troops home and rebuild america, not afghanistan." with that, other lawmakers weighed in. but not that statement. bring in the panel. tucker carlson from daily caller.com. juan williams, with the hill. and sindcated columnist charles krauthammer. charles, the new secretary of defense and his response. >> that wasn't a vigorous defense of the united states. it was adequate. somewhat flat. but in trying to understand karzai, i'm beginning to tend toward accepting the irrationality of the irrational. i'm ge

the people of afghanistan don't like terrorism. but their leaders keep telling them this is afghanistan's war. the taliban in pakistan and the taliban in afghanistan do not think of each other as their rivals or enemies, they're one. it's time to understand that they are one and, therefore, if the government of pakistan or the military of pakistan or the intelligence services of pakistan want to help one faction but fight the other, they should just simply not be acceptable. >> at some point, we're going to have to leave and some of these natural regional dynamics are going to play themselves out. we will leave five years from now and they'll play themselves out, but we can't be there forever. >> i'm not sure why, why bring up the specter forever. let's look at five or ten years and i think it's a little too complacent to say we can leave and the taliban won't take kabul. i don't know why anyone feels so sure about that. and i do believe that if the taliban took over afghanistan, we would have a very significant problem of an al qa

we don't-- there wasn't much to fight over in afghanistan. afghanistan was a place that a bunch ofis arabs jihaddists and financiers hijacked and rented out. if you want to engage in the reform of the eastern world, the reform of the-- then hutow come into the heart as many of thew bush people would say the heart of the middle east, the heart oh the arab world. m so i think that that really was the battle. the battlet was not in kabul. the battle was really inat baghdad. >> let's go back to syria. here we have a humanitarian catastrophe. 70,000 dead, you know, which ish probably a low figure at this point. and we are, the united states largely sitting it out. we're largely watching from the sidelines as this happens.si and the longer this war goes on, the bad effects of that war are going to spread into jordan, into iraq, as we've already seen, spoa lebanon, and we're just watching. and i think we're just watching because of iraq. we look at syria, and we see iraq, and we see, look, if president obama looks at thates and he says i can destroy

we don't-- there wasn't much to fight over in afghanistan. afghanistan was a place that a bunch ofis arabs jihaddists and financiers hijacked and rented out. if you want to engage in the reform of the eastern world, the reform of the-- then hutow come into the heart as many of thew bush people would say the heart of the middle east, the heart oh the arab world. m so i think that that really was the battle. the battlet was not in kabul. the battle was really inat baghdad. >> let's go back to syria. here we have a humanitarian catastrophe. 70,000 dead, you know, which ish probably a low figure at this point. and we are, the united states largely sitting it out. we're largely watching from the sidelines as thisapps.si and the longer this war goes on, the bad effects of that war are going to spread into jordan, into iraq, as we've already seen, spoa lebanon, and we're just watching. and i think we're just watching because of iraq. we look at syria, and we see iraq, and we see, look, if president obama looks at thates and he says i can destroy tha

is afghanistan going to permit a status of forces agreement meaning that it will. if we leave five ten thousand troops there will they be subject to afghan laws if they do wrong and this is a problem we have throughout the world we are an empire and we've got more than seven hundred bases and so wherever we put american soldiers those american soldiers are not accountable to the local laws of that particular country and so we we solve that problem with a status force that is of forces agreement which many many countries now are wise to because it gives a free ride to the criminality that exist within the american forces abroad and so now what will happen that again is then we're going to wait and see what happens with a status of forces agreement but the level of afghanistan is corruption is no different than the level of corruption that we saw in in iraq and now we we have a situation where they kept saying oh we're staying in afghanistan because we need to train the afghanis soldiers well then what we are finding was the afghanis soldiers were killing the trainer

chuck hagel goes to afghanistan, his first big overseas mission. it is in the wake of an attack that happened earlier. there is another attack today. we canceled a meeting with karzai because of security fears. karzai is out telling people we canceled for a completely different reason. and karzai has been publicly throwing stones over the past few weeks. at us. and this latest implication that we have somehow provoked these attacks in order to continue our presence there seems really irrational. but also, but also kind of i guess, calculated. to that, our general told reporters in kabul, we fought too hard over the past 12 years. we've shed too much blood over the past 12 years. we've done too much to help the afghan security forces grow over the last 12 years to think that violence and instability would be to our advantage. right. exactly. nonetheless, karzai seems to have always been the devil we know. so we've worked with him, coddled him, given him cover. it seem like despite over the past few week, and ratcheting up the rhetoric, he has accuse

forces during an operation in southern afghanistan. it happened thursday when coalition forces fired at what they thought were insurgent forces. joseph dunford, the commander of u.s. and allied forces in afghanistan offered his personal apology and condolences to the families the killing of civilians by foreign forces has been a major source of tension with the afghan government throughout the nearly 12- year-old war. >> dramatic video out of iowa. after a semi-truck driver escapes from his vehicle just seconds before it explodes into flames. the truck driver lost control of his truck on the icy overpass. launching the cab and the first of two trailers over the railing. no one was hurt in the accident. but the driver is being cited for failing to maintain control of his vehicle. >> neighbors of the florida house that was nearly swallowed by a sinkhole are gathering their belongings today. this after the giant sinkhole opened up beneath the house on thursday night and swallowed a florida man while he was asleep in his bed. rescue crews

we have been able to consolidate gains in southern afghanistan and eastern afghanistan. the same was true in the period after the destructive civil war for a costly war from 2006 to 2008. iraqis began together -- came together. a gentleman right here. >> ticket. -- thank you. since the president is taking his first foreign trip to the middle east, how do you see his policy and can he achieve something in his second term? to keep the focus on the big question before us, which is the lessons of a decade of war. given that the general mentioned how war does not often turn out the way you want it to, as the air battle concept would be too much towards. that towards investment would put into iraq -- the and this meant we put into iraq shifted attention from asia? said regarding one of the, with in history, 3 packets of a regime but they were doing this for 3 decads. ites. it's only in the end that the u.s. learned of weapons. all regime was brutal \all the time. world one the whole a table. expenditures on iraq affected our ability to operate elsewhere? the united states is t

out of afghanistan not republic of afghanistan and so far they have not changed that tone and unless they change that the people of afghanistan will not be supporting it fall upon that want to reverse things back to to the stone age and we cannot afford that afghanistan has to live in this world it is up to the taliban to show their real face not the face that is pushed by the british intelligence or the facts on the intelligence every paramilitary group looks larger than life when they're in battlefields inviting grohl of war but when they come to a political front then. the proof is is there and these people have to for the present an agenda to the people of afghanistan and present a team. all taleban the old agendas will not be acceptable to the afghan people do you think and aleck did taliban could save face so to speak for the western groups there what they say they may say ok well the taliban is here but this time it's by boat so that's good enough. i think the west is confused the west is looking for an exit a very speedy exit and then. i'm afraid that they will probably do wh

right today we could leave tomorrow and it wouldn't make a difference in afghanistan now all of the equipment that we have there has to be brought out through karate the port of karachi and this is going to pose some interesting problems because of the problems that we have with the drones in afghanistan in pakistan and so. here what you see is this report which is. somebody within the department of defense decided they would tell the truth about something normally you don't see these reports they're hidden covered over by the generals and of course that's what the whole bradley manning the it was about he saw things that the american people should learn and certainly a very eye opening report of mr gravel sorry that we do have to cut it off there but that was the former alaskan senator mike gravel all turning out to the crisis in the united nations twenty one u.n. peacekeepers have been kidnapped and are being held in syria artie's polyfill here has more on the demands being made by the rebel captors. twenty one you in personnel on armed they're all from the philippines and we've h

very much about afghanistan and less about the of afghanistan being defined by an ethnicity or a tribal orientation. to that extent, i did spend time with schools, and one of the schools in particular i spent a lot of time with in kabul, and it was a school where the youngsters almost to a person can we sponsor them with scholarships, almost to a person, these youngsters saw their future in afghanistan tide to their own profession building, doctor, he wanted to be a doctor, he wanted to be a lawyer. she wanted to be an engineer. whatever it might be, they saw their future as tied to afghanistan and not to a job and not necessarily their tribe or their ethnicity. and i think where we've come from middle of 21 to where we are today in so many ways with the development of the ansf and the capacity to operate in the field, and while much work romance to be done, this has been a real benefit to afghanistan as a state and afghanistan as a people in the 19 to 20 that were there. i have to emphasize is the result of the hard work of my predecessors. >> and, of course, i know i should've recogni

we have been able to consolidate gains in southern afghanistan and eastern afghanistan. the same was true in the period after the destructive civil war for a costly war from 2006 to 2008. iraqis began together -- iraqis came together. >> a gentleman right here. >> ticket. -- thank you. since the president is taking his first foreign trip to the middle east, how do you see his policy and can he achieve something in his second term? >> i'm hoping to keep the focus on the big question before us, which is the lessons of a decade of war. general that the mentioned how war does not often turn out the way you want it to, as the air battle concept would be too much towards. how owards that direction, did that shift resources away from europe and asia in the 2000's? >> you said regarding one of the, with in history, 3 packets of a regime but they were doing this for 3 decades. it's only in the end that the u.s. learned of weapons. the regime was brutal all the time. >> we have the whole world on a table. onhow has our expenditures iraq affected our ability to operate elsewhere? t

then afghanistan. the deadly afghan attacks on americans continue from the taliban on the one side and from harmid karzai on the other. is it just time to get out? also ten years on since the iraq war. was it worth it? >> the price was high and i think the price and lives is the one i feel the most acutely. >> an exclusive conversation with paul wolfowitz, who is often seen as the intellectual godfather of that war. >>> from war to love. what countries do americans love and hate. we have an actual list. >>> but, first, here's my take. just when you thought north korea could not get any stranger, it did. and the past few weeks this impositive rshed isolationed nation has tested a nuclear bomb, threatened a preementative nuclear attack on the united states and ended the korean war and declared its intention to rein bullets to its nbaer to the south. north korea is trying to get attention. negotiate a deal, get some goodies and then quietly start cheating on that deal. that has been the pattern in the pas

he's in afghanistan. a joint news conference yesterday between hagel and karzai was canceled yesterday. where do we stand this morning? >> surprising a war of words this late stage. this isn't spring training. this is late fourth quarter and we have this escalating war of words. has led to the cancellation of the joint press conference at the end of such a visit. look at a couple of things that happened and some that didn't happen during the week while secretary hagel was here visiting afghanistan as secretary. on saturday supposed to be an official handover ceremony. it would be in karzai's cap. it didn't happen. because of a last-minute dispute over who would have the final say, the u.s. or the afghanis on which prisoners were considered high value prisoners or high risk pri risk prisoners. a demand by karzai last month that u.s. and special forces withdrawal from a kabul suburb. he gave a two-week deadline. while the deadline is now passed. the special forces are still here. that didn't happen. think o

service members were killed while serving in afghanistan. andrea mitchell, i'll let you take it from here. as we move forward because also hamid karzai is jumping into the conversation too, which is a little bit troubling. >> exactly. well, this has been ten years with hamid karzai, but this has really gone off the rails. it was the first visit as pentagon chief of chuck hagel. and the whole visit was overshadowed by karzai's misbehavior. yes, he's playing to a local audience, his own political problems, but for him to suggest to the defense secretary that the u.s. is colluding with the taliban to extend the war and keep the american presence longer than 2014, when actually he for his own survival needs those troops there and does need to negotiate this long lasting agreement despite his denials for additional residual american troops, it's simply outrageous and it's not going to -- of budget cuts and sequesters. there is no way that congress is going to put up with this very much longer and i think it's only going to hasten the withdraw tim

-- is our mission succeeding in afghanistan? can you tell us about the capabilities of the afghan security forces? >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> i thought i would start with general mattis. >> our mission is succeeding. the afghan campaign is on track. it is a combination of progress in violence, but when it comes down to it, the afghan security forces are proving themselves capable. obviously when we were looking at the drawdown numbers, it was a certain amount of forecasting that the afghan forces would be capable. let me give you some statistic is to take us simply my evaluation. since the first of january, we have lost four u.s. troops in action. in the same time, the afghan forces have lost 98. there can be no doubt that the afghans are doing the bulk of the fighting. they're doing it with our support. as a result, i need to go back and look at the statistics and how we are evaluating forces that are proving themselves in combat when we are saying that only one is capable of independent operations with our advisors. we mig

in the olympics, to prove to the world that women in afghanistan have progressed. >> reporter: salma and her teammates only ride because a colorado mountain biker named shannon galpin who pedalled the remote trails in afghanistan during years as relief worker wanted to expand the sport she loved to the troubled country she'd come to love. >> it's more than sport. it's a symbol of freedom. >> reporter: when galpin learned afghanistan's best known rider abdul siddiqui was forming a team and intended to include female racers, she jumped in. her mountain to mountain nonprofit collecting rooms full of donated bikes and gear. >> if they are willing to take the risk the least we can do is support them. >> reporter: the risks are real. death threats, constant harassment. so predictable the whole team trains in secret dodging trucks and road hazards on the edge of town. the girls always in head scarves, full sleeves and long pants, fighting the stubborn taboo. in kabul's main bicycle mart the idea of women riding bikes to go to work, to go to the market, to get from here to there meets with o

- of iraq and afghanistan. our men and women are coming back alive. that theya 98.6% would be flown out of iraq alive. that's an amazing percentage. when they get back to the united states, what is happening in their lives now? humming back without a limb or an arm or a leg, having issues with -- coming back without a limb or an arm or a leg, having issues with ptsd. if we think it is bad now, it is going to get worse. we've got to be in a position physically where we can put priorities to the things that need to be done. i believe this country owes a debt. we have to get that fixed. we've got to start thinking out- of-the-box on how to do that. host: a republican caller. go ahead, al. ,aller: doug, good morning appreciate who you are. what i really want to talk about is -- hello? host: we are listening. caller: i think the iraq war was definitely a success. saddam and his henchmen are gone, which was the goal anyway. what i don't under -- they lied about weapons of mass destruction. [indiscernible] .ost: i'm r

there are other cities and afghanistan is going towards more violence and the next coming months the people of afghanistan has a strong concert that's jewish and will go well will be wars particularly after. two thousand and fourteen when all the foreign troops leave the country. a russian microsatellites been hit by chinese space junk going to be floating around out there since two thousand and seven it was an abundance of space debris up there even an object as small as a sugar cube can cause a lot of damage one of the more is r.t. sean thomas. this is a sugar cube and it doesn't seem like it's very much but if it hits you at seventeen thousand miles an hour you can imagine it can do significant damage now in terms of this specific incident this is a collision between a piece of space junk from a chinese satellite which was destroyed back in two thousand and seven it collided with a small russian blit satellite the incident actually happened on january twenty second but it took up until now to discover exactly what happened and here's why scientists discovered basically that there

defense secretary chuck hagel is a visit to afghanistan has been marred by a series of suicide attacks taliban suicide bomber on a bicycle detonated explosives near the country's defense ministry killing at least nine people killed is not in the area. fine roads around the building located near the presidential palace have been closed the local taliban branch said he was intended to send a message to the u.s. defense chief eight children and a police officer were also killed by another suicide attack in the east of the country political analyst. says the taliban is sending a strong message to the u.s. . first the taliban will want to send a player message today united states into. defense secretary and that they are able to launch this kind of attacks even in the capital kabul in particular times disappoint off all security measures have been taken by the afghan and nato forces in. the capital secondly i believe that the taliban insisted on the air pre conditions that they are not ready to negotiate with the government of afghanistan or with the nato forces out with americans about the

government finally got out of the prison business in afghanistan transferring control of the prison and afghan prisoners at bagram. the ceremony took place after secretary of state john kerry met with the afghan president. karzai accused the u.s. recently of company lookedding with the taliban to undermine his government. he insisted as a matter of nothing samplety that the u.s. seized control of the prison and it's prisoners. the u.s. has been reluctant to give up control prisoners included taliban leaders. with president obama planning to end the u.s. combat role by the end of 2014 and the new security deal and an afghan president still pending kerry said this: >> you i think stand on the brisk of a remarkable legacy for having brought afghanistan through an amazingly difficult time. i believe that the roadmap ahead is going to be very clear and constructive. john: what happens to the prisoners who were tortured and those still held. we are joined by glenn grenwold. what a pleasure to have you back on the show. >> great to be back. >> the prison, what kind of place is it, what human r

invasion of afghanistan. particularly in light of the fact that we all know that oil was one of the reasons we went to war in the first place. perhaps easier to see in the context of today's budget quagmire is is the fact that in an unprecedented move, the u.s. is going all the money that we spent in iraq. this is the first time in history since the revolutionary war when we borrowed from france that we cut taxes and paid for an entire war out of debt. so we added some $2 trillion to the national credit card, which is a major component of the nine trillion dollars in u.s. debt that has been accrued since 2001. aboutrse when we think debt and deficits, there are two kinds of deficit. there are those that invest in human capital or infrastructure or investing in education, and those which do not, which endanger our future by adding to the national debt. and this war deficit was of the second type. amthird point that i passionate about, although it is difficult for many people to be passionate about accounting,