Page 23 - Afg News Today

And he has another marine son either deploying or about to be deployed. >> that human connection for some of the key decision makers here is absolutely key. andrea mitchell, pleasure and honor to have you hear with us tonight. joining us now in studio is a veteran of the war in afghanistan. he was an adviser to stanley mcchrystal. its great to have you here. let me ask your top line reaction to the speech tonight. >> you hit it. its not a big policy change. the big shift is where the president...

But the real question is what difference does that make in terms of achieving war objectives? if at the end of the day what we really want to do is to have a central government in kabul that can actually control afghanistan, the taliban is not a factor anymore. the people in afghanistan can defend themselves, the afghan army is at top condition. if thats what we are looking to do, then none of of the things that he said are actually going to contribute to that. including even to the point of bui...

He said that pakistan needs to demonstrate that it is committed to civilization, order and peace telling a country they are not committed to civilization is calling them barbarians. then he immediately followed it by saying and we would like more direct involvement in afghanistan from india which will raise hackles in the pakistani government because of the relationship between those two countries. that seems to me the biggest change in diplomatic relations tonight. >> thats what leaped out at m...

Doing. but no, i think youre right. it sounds like we are going to be involved in extricating -- releasing mineral welt -- can and there is substantial mineral wealth i dont think whether or not it can be taken out in an efficient way -- were going to take that out of afghanistan. you know the chinese are already there doing that. and i think that that the united states is concerned that were not getting our share but i think thats what it means. >> under the circumstances this is an ongoing war...

But i also have to see exactly what this is. if i look at the policy that the obama administration had toward the war in afghanistan its not that much different from what we heard tonight. so i think we have to figure out, you know, what the president said is going to be really significant and what is going to be a change and whats going to be different. i think you were right to highlight the way in which the president called out india and wanting india to play a larger role in afghanistan. thi...

I think the pakistan stuff, that could be significant. well see. its going to cause ripples. my question and i hate to go to the operational side of things. but so many of our lines of communication and resupply run through pakistan. it will be interesting to see how they thread that needle. on one hand dependent on them and on the other hand taking them to task, fairly. >> it was interesting when we got the supporting reporting around what was going on in the administration to prepare for this ...

And bringing india into it, its such an insult, i cant see what the incentive is for pakistan to take any action. they have their pride and authority and nationhood challenged by the president. it is a strange way to expand the strategy to include all of south asia. >> and in terms of the u.s. government, the president didnt appoint a random crony or fundraiser to be ambassador to pakistan. a career foreign service person has been named the ambassador to pakistan. that seems a gesture toward sta...

>> my pleasure. >> to the congresswomans point, the politics on this have changed a lot. but what hasnt changed is the existence of this war. its more than 2300 americans have been killed in afghanistan. its more than 20,000 americans who have been wounded in afghanistan. you look at the number of americans who have served there, including an incredibly different circumstances and conditions, the idea that there is a military solution thats going to offer more of a chance of success in year 17 t...

Iraq and of course going on 17 years now in afghanistan. for the past decade or so, every year, congresswoman barbara lee has introduced an amendment to repeal that authorization so congress would have to pass a new one for the next military authorization. this year, finally, unexpectedly, congresswoman lee did manage to get her amendment through committee to applause with republican support and everything. before the amendment got stripped out of the final bill by republican leadership who abso...

Many years, i was trying to think about this as we were driving. we, i dont know when we first met, but we were both really, really young. randy weingarden. along with thanking randy, the president of the afg. let me thank all the educators and teachers. i think its about time we stop scapegoating teachers and support them. >> comes in tonight on "snl." >> you have hillary clinton on the left, pembroke pines making an acknowledgement to the mother of trayvon martin and acknowledging people in th...