the white house likes the image of the president who is very, very careful about a huge expansion of the military presence in afghanistan. always a key thing to strategy militarily speaking is the exit strategy here. and the report is that the president wanted an exit strategy. the war advisers did not provide one, so did they fail him in that sense, richard? couldn t they at least provided one exit option? well, this is still something of a gray area. not because of the way the white house has spoken about it or the way the president has spoken about it, but the idea that troops will begin to be drawn down next summer, starting next summer. not that they will all leave, but the process will begin next summer. there was a timeline built into this. and the notion, although clearly expressed by the president, has been doubted by the generals. there have even been certain question marks raised by the secretary of defense, robert gates. so that is an area that is still
achievable. that s where the president has to wrestle with things not just military objectives. is there a viable exit strategy out there notwithstanding the book, but one out there being commonly or currently discussed? the question is what is the goal? if the goal is to take on al qaeda, then, yes, there s an exit strategy. if it s nation building if it s to stand up a fully functioning afghan bede mockeracy which was the outlines of what president bush was going for, then that exit strategy is a couple of generations away. that s where this president has tried to refocus the mission and, obviously, there are folks in the military who say give us more time. more troops. we can get to a different result. richard wolffe, we always appreciate your focus. it say royal embarrassment. should queen elizabeth be getting money from a fund for the poor to pay for heat at buckingham palace? but the times have changed. get the facts at remax.com. it s a great place to see all the listing
want to keep the illusion we re not going to, no problems are ahead. you re eating all the food. you re using all the batteries. joe, what you re doing is a ponzi scheme. not a solution. if we keep spending we ll fall off the cliff to the grand canyon, then we won t have anything left to get us back out. if we remain standing on the edge, you are in trouble. have you heard anyone in the media ask the president or the genius economists this question: hey, mr. president, i read. i can figure out weimar. spending is really bad. what is your exit strategy? i mean because if you are spending to jumpstart the economy, and it s not work something far, a, when do you say that s enough, we ve tried it enough, the car is not going to start? or when do you stop? because right now, here is how it s playing out. we need more stimulus money so teachers don t get fired.
woodward book fallout. charles? the real story is not what he said about absorbing another 9/11 attack or insults of one member of the circle against another. it s what the ambivalence he portrays in private about the war he himself escalated. questionable how commander-in-chief can endanger number of troops and put them in harm s way in a war he seems only to want an exit. bret: erin, quickly. i think on that he obviously was heeding the call of the base when he, you know, this was shortly after being elected in 2008. i think the most interesting thing is we know definitively now that hamid karzai is a manic depressive and on medicine. bret: fred? you know, reading what we know about woodward s book shows the president as weak, incredibly weak. he wanted the military to give him an exit strategy, so he didn t have to send in 40,000 troops, or 30,000 more troops. and prolong the american intervention there. he wanted to get out. yet, military thwarted him. he wasn t strong
stronger. what about the book and fall-out in washington? the panel, charles? the most troubling aspect of the obama surge in afghanistan, ever since the speech in december when he announced it was the uncertain trumpet you heard when he talked about withdrawal. everything since i think has supported the suspicion that the heart was not in the war. even though the rhetoric is how it is in the supreme interest of the united states. that we succeed in the war. now we have shocking evidence, shocking evidence that our suspicion, our skepticism about it, his heart is in the war is in the excerpts. i m not talking about the calling of names or in fighting but what we just heard. this is a president that says of the generals i want exit strategy. i don t want a success strategy. i want an exit strategy. he said it in two years and